Snow Colored Lens
by KimuraSato
Summary: For Danny Fenton, life in Amity Park was fairly average. He had two great friends, he had his own personal bully, and he was a photographer taking pictures for a local newspaper. Everything was normal. Then the ghosts showed up, and everything changed. (Phantom x Fenton)
1. Chapter 1

**Snow Colored Lens**

**Pairing:** Phantom x Fenton

**Warnings:** Homosexual relationships. Main DP characters of the story are in their senior year of high school and are 18 years of age. Violence. Foul language. Phantom and Danny Fenton are two separate people.

**Disclaimer:** Danny Phantom is a product of Nickelodeon. All characters in this story are imaginary.

**Summary: **For Danny Fenton, life in Amity Park was fairly average. He had two great friends, he had his own personal bully, and he was a photographer taking pictures for a local newspaper. Everything was normal. Then the ghosts showed up, and everything changed.

**Originally Written: **September 2013-?

**Chapter 01**

A noise came from below, and Danny paused with his spoon raised halfway to his mouth as his blue eyes drifted toward the door leading down into the basement. It was the same thing every day. He sat down to breakfast and listened to the sounds of his parents working in the basement. A big sign bordered with black and white slanted stripes and the words KEEP OUT written in giant bold lettering in the center was nailed to door that had a lock on the other side to keep him from entering while they were down there.

Danny sighed as he turned back to his breakfast, shoveling the spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth. He hadn't the foggiest of ideas what his parents worked on all day in the basement. Jazz theorized on it for hours to him once, nearly putting him to sleep as she droned on and on, but they had no hard proof to support any of her ideas. All they knew was that their parents worked for the government, and what they were hired to do was so top secret that they weren't even allowed to tell their children. He could see his father desperately wanting to tell them about it. His eyes lit up with excitement, his mouth stretching into a grin that nearly split his face, before his expression fell with the realization that he couldn't talk about it. Those moments always killed Danny because he knew how much his father loved to blather on about virtually everything.

When he finished his breakfast, Danny carried his bowl over to the sink and gave it a quick washing. Then he grabbed his book bag from where he left it on the floor next to his chair at the table. Walking over the basement door, he knocked on it, not sure why he bothered since his parents probably couldn't hear him over the noise they were making.

"I'm off to school," Danny called down to them. "I'll see you at dinner." He didn't wait for a reply, instead walking out of the kitchen and down the hall to the front door. Some people might think that his parents were neglectful as they dedicated themselves to their work, but Danny knew they cared a great deal about him and his sister. Maybe they didn't spend hours with each other discussing every detail of their day, but they always sat down to dinner together and talked about various things. It was more like he talked about various things, since his parents usually remained in the basement all day and they couldn't talk about what they did there. But he knew if he ever really needed them for something, they would pull themselves away from their work to be there for him.

It was late March, and the weather was still chilly out as he stepped outside and locked the front door behind him. Right on time, he heard the honk of his friend's car. Danny jogged down the walk way, and with a grin, he hopped into the back seat. Sam sat in the driver's seat with Tucker sitting next to her. They were best friends ever since second grade after an incident that involved Tucker and Sam's lunch and vomit. They never told Sam about what really happened that day, and she still believed that Ricky Marsh was the one to vomited in her lunch.

"Did you take notes for me?" Danny asked as he leaned on the front seats.

"Yeah, yeah." Tucker reached into his book bag and pulled out a wrinkled sheet of paper with his notes from their math class scribbled all over it. He still wore his usual red beret that he had worn ever since they entered high school. He was a whiz with technology, and over the years, Danny saw him go through a variety of different versions of many different devices. In freshman year, his PDA was practically his baby. Now Tucker's love was with his touch screen cell phone with dozens of applications downloaded onto it. Danny was almost a little jealous since his phone was basically only good for calling people. Tucker's phone could play music and access the internet. There was even a mobile version of their old favorite game Doomed on it.

Danny gave it a glance over and hoped he would be able to understand it enough to finish his homework. "What was our assignment?"

"Page four fifty-seven, problems one through twenty-five." Tucker twisted around in his seat to face Danny as he stroke a hand over his chin. "Notice anything?"

Danny leaned in really close as he squinted his eyes. "Is that mole?" He scratched a finger over Tucker's jaw. "Oh, sorry. That was just a bit of chocolate." Tucker pouted, and beside him, Sam tried to hold back her snickering, to little success. "Dude, seriously, there's no visible hair there."

"That's what I told him, but he didn't listen to me." Sam reached over and slapped Tucker on the shoulder, ignoring his shout of pain. "Nice try growing the beard, baby cheeks." She still sported the Goth look that she was pretty much famous for, dressing in a pair of dark but not quite black jeans and a long sleeved black shirt. The black choker she wore had a small silver skull on it that got her many disapproving looks from their teachers, who apparently believed it meant she worshipped the devil or some such nonsense. Sam might read some pretty dark books, but Danny was fairly certain there was no devil worshipping involved. Their teachers, however, didn't appreciate it when Sam turned up on Halloween wearing vampire fangs.

"You two suck," Tucker grumbled, turning back around in his seat as he folded his arms, which gained him laughs from his friends.

Danny shook his head as he pulled out his math textbook and flipped it open to the assigned page. After folding up the sheet of notes, he scribbled down the problems that he needed to do once they reached school then closed the book to shove it back in his bag. His math class wasn't until the afternoon, which gave him his lunch period to rush through the homework.

"Man, I still can't believe Lancer lets you get away with skipping out of class," Tucker said.

"We talked it over at the beginning of sophomore year." Danny rolled his eyes. "I told him I wanted to take up photography, hopefully to get a job at a newspaper, and he said if I can still keep up with all my classes, he'd give me a pass to excuse my absences from class."

"So not fair. I call favoritism." Tucker was only joking, though Danny suspected there were plenty of other students in their class that thought it wasn't fair that he had a free pass out of class. A certain jock came to mind when he thought about it. "Do you think Lancer would give me a pass too if I said I wanted to do the same?" Tucker turned around again to face Danny, and he had a serious look in his green eyes.

"You'd probably ruin things for Danny if you did," Sam said as she tilted her head, ebony hair brushing over her shoulder. "Lancer might think that it was all an act so that Danny could skip out of class whenever he wanted if you're doing it too."

"Yeah, I'm lucky that Lancer is a big believer of supporting students to pursue their dreams," Danny said, reaching around the passenger seat's headrest to give Tucker a small punch on the shoulder. "If it was up to only Principal Ishiyama, I'd probably never get to leave in the middle of school to take shots for the newspaper." He got lucky when he stumbled onto the scene of a car accident and took some shots that the newspaper actually decided to use and pay him for them. After a meeting with the editor-in-chief, Mr. Carmichael agreed to sign him on as a free lance photographer for _The_ _Amity Park Herald_, but Danny only got paid for the pictures they actually used. Mr. Carmichael had Danny's cell phone number so that he could contact him at any time when a news story broke and they needed a photographer to grab some shots.

When they arrived at school, Sam found a spot in the parking lot close to the entrance of the school. They all grabbed their things and headed into the building together. Their lockers were all next to each other, but unfortunately, to get to their lockers, they usually had to pass by the dreaded A list section of the lockers. He tried to avoid being seen as much as possible, but Dash had some sort of Fenton radar that allowed him to lock in on Danny's location even when he was ducking behind his friends. Sometimes being tall and lanky really didn't work for him.

"Hey, Fentall!"

Danny groaned internally when he heard that all too familiar voice. He paused and turned around to see Dash standing with one foot up against the locker. "You can't possibly have a reason to want to beat me up already," he said, trying to sound brave, though he could hear a slight crack in his voice. His gaze drifted from the beefy blond jock to the woman standing beside him.

Paulina was probably the prettiest woman with long, glossy ebony hair and emerald eyes in the whole school. Danny had a crush on her back in freshman year, but after an incident in which she went out of her way to embarrass Sam before the whole school, his feelings toward her had basically fallen into the negative. Currently, she was too busy filing her nails, sharpening her claws Sam would probably say, to pay any attention to what her boyfriend was doing.

"Since when do I need a reason to pound on a dweeb?" Dash laughed as he pushed away from the lockers. "But since you bring it up," he said, cracking his knuckles as he stepped up to Danny.

"Why don't you just leave him alone?" Tucker asked, though he stayed back. Danny couldn't blame him since his own legs felt like they were slowly melting into the goo with Dash standing right before him.

"Don't you have better things to do?" Sam demanded, placing his hands on her hips as she narrowed her violet eyes at him. "Like, I don't know, scratching you butt with the other gorillas?"

Dash's hand latched out faster than Danny could react, seizing hold of the green hooded sweatshirt that he wore and twisting his grasp on it as he dragged Danny closer to him. "You let your girlfriend talk to me like that?" He held his face inches away from Danny, who could smell the sausage on his breath from breakfast.

"Firstly, Sam is my friend who is a girl. Not my girlfriend. Second, ever hear of breath mints?" Danny wheezed, waving a hand before his nose as sweat trickled down the back of his neck.

"What was that, Fenturd?" Dash yanked Danny another step closer with a growl in his voice.

Danny swallowed thickly, wondering why he even opened his mouth sometimes. Talking always landed him into more trouble when it came to Dash. "Isn't this a little crazy?" Or maybe Danny, himself, was crazy for trying to talk to Dash in some civilized manner. "I mean, what did I ever do to you that made you want to kick my ass every week?"

"At least my parents don't completely ignore my existence." Dash smirked as if the comment gained him some sort of victory.

"Where is that even coming from?" Confusion replaced his fear of the jock. Danny's brow creased as he tried follow the strange jock logic, but he failed to make the connection. The comment had little impact since Danny knew his parents weren't ignoring his existence. If he thought that would make Danny break down and cry, Dash was losing his touch.

"Dash! Check it out!" said another jock, dashing over to them and holding up his hand that contained what looked like two tickets.

"No way, man!" Dash immediately dropped his hold on Danny to walk over to his friend. "You got the tickets to the Dumpty Humpty concert?"

"Did you think I would leaving you hanging?" He grinned widely as his friend took his ticket and examined it like he couldn't believe it was real. Kwan was probably the nicest of all the jocks, and Danny sometimes didn't understand why Kwan would ever hang out with someone like Dash when he didn't seem to like the whole bullying side of being a jock. But the pair had been best friends for as long Danny knew them.

"Only two tickets?" Paulina questioned as she joined, lifting a delicate eyebrow with a frown of disapproval. "What about me?"

"Oh," Kwan mumbled, his excitement fading quickly away. "My father would only buy two tickets."

"So I don't get to go?" Paulina folded her arms, anger flashing in her eyes.

"I tried to get my dad to buy another ticket." Kwan rubbed at the back of his neck with his aqua green eyes cast to the floor. "But he said they were too expensive to buy three of them."

"Maybe you can ask your dad to buy a ticket," Dash suggested as he tucked his own ticket into pocket. "You can usually get your dad to buy you anything."

Danny turned away from the A list members, grabbing hold of his friends' arms as he hurried toward their lockers while Dash was distracted. That was probably the best thing about Kwan's relationship with Dash. Danny lost count of how many times Kwan swooped in to save him from a potential beating.

"See you guys later," Danny said, waving to his friends after they finished getting their things from their lockers. They all had different first period classes, but Danny shared several of his other classes with them. He walked through the crowded halls, sticking to the walls until he reached his first class and collapsed into his seat.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 02**

Danny sank down as best he could in his seat as Lancer's green eyes narrowed in his direction before turning on the other two men in turn. That was another problem with his height. When he slouched, his legs tended to stick out a great distance, and he wound up tripping other people by accident. Being dragged into the vice principal's office was not exactly how he wanted to spend his lunch break, but he didn't exactly enjoy the prospect of slaving away over math problems either. He only had about four problems left to solve before everything went to hell.

"Anyone care to explain what started this?" Lancer questioned after the silence had dragged out for several minutes.

Danny didn't even dare to look at the other two men nor did he voice his side of how things went earlier in the cafeteria. He was already in enough trouble with the jocks, and he hadn't even _done_ anything to them. Throwing all the blame onto the jocks would only land him with bigger problems than what Lancer had in mind for them.

"The loser started it."

Danny rolled his blue eyes at the jock's gruff voice. Sometimes he wondered how the jock stayed in school when he didn't seem to have more than two brain cells to rub together. The very idea of even attempting to voice such a comment, however, made his throat constrict and his mouth feel uncomfortable dry. A comment like that was sure to send him on a one way trip to the hospital, if not the morgue.

Lancer sighed, and Danny could tell from that simple exhale that he didn't buy what the jock said. That was the thing about knowing his teacher pretty well: he could judge what was going on in the man's mind from minor expressions. Bullying was something that happened in every school, some more than others, but Lancer wasn't completely ignorant to what the jocks did. Some teachers, though, were happy to pretend bullying didn't happen if it meant their sports teams would be able to make into the championships. Danny ground his teeth in anger over the unfair special treatment toward jocks.

A ringtone interrupted the stare down between the jocks and Lancer. Danny jerked up in his seat as he dug into his pocket to grab his cell phone.

"Don't answer that," Lancer ordered firmly, pointing a finger at Danny as he turned his glare onto his student.

"But-" Danny started, knowing who would be calling him. The only one with his cell phone number that would dare to call in the middle of school was Mr. Carmichael needing him to report to the scene of a story to take some pictures for the newspaper.

"No, Mr. Fenton, you will not answer that phone," Lancer said evenly as he laced his fingers over the desk. Danny gulped at the severe frown on his teacher's face and left his phone be. After a few more rings, the cell phone fell silent. "I've allowed you to leave school in the middle of class because I believe in supporting your desire to get some work experience in a profession that interests you. However, I can't allow you to leave school when I have to punish you."

"But-" Danny tried again but was silenced when Lancer cut off his protest.

"Did you participate in the fight?" Lancer questioned seriously.

Danny slumped back in his seat. He didn't have to glance the jocks' way to know at least one of them was snickering. "Yes," he answered reluctantly, glaring off to the side of Lancer's desk.

"The who started it is fairly irrelevant as all three of you shall be punished for fighting," Lancer said, glaring at each man seated before him. "But I would like to know what started this fight?"

Danny ground his teeth so hard he thought they started to crack under the pressure. Why should he be punished for defending himself? Not that he did a very good job if the bruised ribs were any indication. But he guessed Lancer couldn't simply overlook that Danny had thrown quite a few punches too, as little good as that did him.

"I hope one of you will give me an answer, or you're punishment might become more than one afternoon of cleaning up the kitchens." Lancer's mouth pursed unpleasantly when he didn't receive an answer like he wanted. "I have been, perhaps, a bit too lenient in my hopes that the three of you would somehow resolve your differences without my interference, but it seems that the three of you won't get anywhere unless I force the topic. Now what started all of this?"

"Calvin threw a football," Dash explained, and Danny snapped his head around to gape at the jock. "Don't even start, Calvin." Dash ignored Danny to sneer at his teammate. "We'll be sitting here all day if we don't answer." He turned his attention back to Lancer. "Calvin threw the football, and it hit Fenton's lunch. That's what started the fight."

"I see." Lancer glanced Danny's way, noting the globs of ketchup and mustard over Danny's clothing and the bits of lettuce in his raven hair. "And how many times have I asked you not to throw the football within the school?" Lancer landed a cold glare on Calvin.

"Once or twice, maybe," Calvin answered, shrugging as he looked away.

Lancer stared flatly. He had told the jock far more than a few times about not throwing the football while in school. "This would be one of the reasons I've asked you to stop throwing the ball in school. Now, I hope the three of you can get along for the remainder of the school year. If I find any of you causing trouble on school grounds, I will expel you." He narrowed his green eyes as he pointed at all of them, but Danny thought he held his gaze on Calvin the longest. "Now, hurry off to your classes." He dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

Danny lingered back, watching the two jocks leave the office before he turned to Lancer. "Sir, can't I do this punishment another day? There's a story, and my boss needs me there to take pictures."

"And then another story comes up. And another. And another." Lancer stared at Danny, holding his gaze. "Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Yeah," Danny said with a sigh of defeat as his shoulders slumped. Unfortunately, he knew exactly the point Lancer was trying to make.

"I'm very proud that you're so dedicated to your photography career as well as your school work. Unfortunately, I can't allow you to skip out on punishment because of a job. That would hardly be fair."

"They attacked me!" Danny argued, mostly out of frustration because it was infuriating to be the constant target of bullying.

"And it's greatly unfortunate that I have to punish you as well." Lancer sighed tiredly, looking more exhausted than Danny had ever seen him. "But as you _did_ strike at Calvin in retaliation, as well deserved as it may be, my hand is forced, and I must include you in the punishment as a participant of the fight."

"I did the crime. I should do the time." Danny sighed as he headed for the door of the office.

"I do regret that you have to be partied to the punishment," Lancer said, and Danny nodded before he left to head to his next class.

Folding his arms, Danny could only think of the unfairness of it all as he headed down the hall. He was being punished for defending himself, though he hardly did a good job of it. He expected to find dark bruises on his body when he looked in the mirror, but Dash and Calvin only sported the hint of bruising on their faces from where Danny managed to land a hit. He did, however, know the school rules. Regardless of whom started the fight, all members that actively participated in the fight would receive punishment. He knew he should feel lucky that Lancer was nice enough not to expel them all for fighting. But knowing and understanding that rule didn't stop bitterness curling inside him. Some of that melted away when he reminded himself that the jocks weren't getting off because of special treatment. Calvin and Dash were stuck with the punishment too, and that fact made him feel a little better.

His remaining classes felt unbearably long with the knowledge of his punishment looming ever closer. He had to turn in his math homework incomplete, but at least he had most of the problems solved. After math class, he explained the whole conversation with Lancer to Tucker, who agreed with him that it was unfair that he was getting punished too. Danny shrugged in response, knowing complaining about it really wouldn't change anything.

When school ended, Danny bid goodbye to his friends before reporting to the cafeteria kitchens for his punishment with the jocks. Dash didn't look happy about the punishment, but he basically ignored Danny when he entered. Calvin, on the other hand, sneered viciously when his gaze landed on Danny.

"You'll be free to go when all the pots and pans are clean," Lancer informed them, arms folded over his rounded belly. "I don't want to hear a peep of noise coming from in here. You three start up another fight, and you just might be facing expulsion." He narrowed his eyes then left the three of them alone in the kitchens.

"I can't believe you got us into this," Calvin muttered, ramming a shoulder into Danny as he passed.

Danny ignored him and got to work scrubbing a pot clean that he was certain he didn't want to know what was cooked in it. He wanted to get everything cleaned up quickly so that he could go home and get away from the jocks that hated him. Behind him, he heard sloshing and banging of metal against metal as the jocks worked. The longer they cleaned the pots and pans, the more endless the chore began to feel to Danny. Every time he finished one pot or pan, it seemed like ten more took its place.

They must have worked for at least an hour before trouble started. Danny felt fingers in his hair, tangling in the raven locks, but he didn't react fast enough to that sudden hold on him. A yelp barely managed to escape him before his face plunged forward into the basin of dirty dish water. Danny struggled to push himself upright and out of the water, but the jock was far stronger than he was. It was like trying to move a mountain. His lungs started to burn for air, and he was pretty certain his flailing around wasn't helping him do much more than spill the water all over the floor and soak his clothes.

Then suddenly the force holding down disappeared, and Danny was able to yank his head free of the water. He sank to his knees, coughing and gasping in greedy mouthfuls of air as his dark locks stuck to his face.

"Stop it," Dash said firmly, and when he lifted his head, Danny saw the blond jock glaring at his teammate.

"What, now you're taking _his_ side?" Calvin growled as he thrust a finger in Danny's direction.

"Perhaps you don't give a shit because your only pleasure in life is kicking the asses of losers, but _I_ happen to want to go to college." Dash shoved Calvin back a few steps. "I'm not going to let _you_ screw that up for me by _killing_ someone."

"This is Kwan's influence, isn't it?" Calvin snarled when he said the name, drawing back his lips like a beast ready to snap his fangs at them.

"Leave Kwan out of this." Dash's fists clenched tightly at his sides. "Just get back to washing so we can get the hell out of here."

Calvin looked like he wanted to argue, but he ended up deciding against it. He turned away from the other two men and returned to his corner where he worked on scrubbing grime from a pan.

"Um," Danny mumbled, not really sure what to say as he climbed back to his feet. Dash was usually the one joining in on bully him, not the one jumping in to stop some form of bullying.

"Look, Fentwad," Dash said as he turned around and jabbed a finger into Danny's chest. "I didn't stop him as some favor to you. I just don't want to be here any longer than necessary or end up getting expelled." He stepped in close, and with his legs still feeling a touch weak, Danny gulped nervously and hoped his legs weren't shaking too much. "Or worse, ending up in prison because that ass," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate Calvin, "decided to drag me down with him for drowning you. I might take my aggressions out on you, but I don't have any intention of _killing_ you."

"Um, well, thanks," Danny said, still finding the whole situation strange. He swallowed under the glower on Dash's face. "For stopping Calvin." He tugged nervously at the damp cuff of one sleeve. "You didn't have to step in, but you did anyway."

"Oh, don't get mushy and shit." Dash wrinkled his nose. "I was just saving my own skin. Although," a smirk slipped onto his face as he folded his arms over his chest, "I suppose this means you owe me."

The color started draining from his face. "What did you have in mind?" Danny doubted he would like anything that Dash might want from him.

"Well," Dash's mouth pursed in thought for a moment, "I did always like your sister."

Danny frowned at him. "I can tell one thing right now. No matter how many good words I put in for you, she is never going to agree to a date if you continue to harass me." He leaned back on the sink basin. "She's awfully protective of me, and if you want to get in good with her, then at least have to treat me like I'm invisible. I'm not saying you have to be nice and we have to be all buddy-buddy, but you can't use me like a punching bag anymore."

Dash stared, his jaw clenched tightly. "I'll think about it." Then he turned away and returned to his own section of pots and pans to wash.

Danny breathed out a long sigh, feeling like his whole body deflated with that breath. If that suggestion worked and Dash lightened up on his bullying, then Danny only had to worry about avoiding Calvin, who seemed to need no excuse other than the fact that Danny was breathing to bully him. Danny turned back to the sink and picked up the pot he was cleaning before Calvin attacked him.

* * *

**Some Weird Chick**: Oh no! D: It's not supposed to hurt! Haha, no musical Danny in this one. XD;; That's a different story. 8D;;; I just didn't have a good idea for a Phantom x Fenton full length story until recently. XD;;

**ghostanimal**: Yay~ I'm glad it's caught your interest. =)

**Guest**: I'm managing! Somehow. XD;; So many ideas bouncing around in my head. D8 But I'm keeping notes with each chapter just so I can go back and easily check on details in case I start mixing anything up in my head! Haha, I gotta set things up though! XD If I just jumped into the action, it would be a lot like "wait! what the heck is going on!?" Hm. *strokes chin mysteriously* What could his parents be working on?

**midnight**: They are... working on something top secret! It's very mysterious~

**swaqdanny**: Yessssssssss, swaq! It's finally here~

**Guest**: I hope you enjoy it! =) Photographer and writer seem to be two professions I can really see Danny having, if not astronaut or taking over his parents' work. XD;;

**mrs fentonisme**: Thanks! =) Hm, we'll have to see about Phantom's PoV. I fear it might break up the flow for the reader if I'm doing most of it in Fenton's PoV then suddenly switch to Phantom's PoV.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 03**

Danny sighed tiredly as he pushed open the door to his house. He was cold and tired and ached all over, his soaked clothing feeling heavy as it clung to his body. It was times like this that he was happy that his parents were so busy working in the basement. Before Jazz went off to college, her constant mothering over him when he returned home sporting bruises drove him crazy sometimes. He knew it was simply because she cared a great deal about him and hated to see him being the target of bullying at school. He never had to say anything for her to know who the bullies were. Dash wasn't exactly the person he wanted to see his sister dating, but if the jock could change his way to become a better person, maybe that wouldn't be so bad, if Jazz decided to agree to a date sometime.

After shutting the door, Danny dragged himself upstairs and down the hall to his bedroom where he dumped his book bag by his desk. Then he headed into the bathroom and got his first real look at himself since lunch. A bruise already formed below his left eye where Calvin's fist grazed his face. He was pretty sure it was Calvin that threw that punch, though it was hard to tell with the chaos of being trapped between the two jocks. With a sigh, he pushed away from the sink and grabbed the hem of his hooded sweatshirt and the shirt beneath it. A hiss escaped him as he yanked off his clothes and dumped the wet items onto the floor with a splat. His pale flesh was peppered with bruises, some lighter than others where the punches weren't as strong. He cringed at the sight of them, guessing in his head how long it would take each of them to fade away.

He finished removing his clothes then stepped into the shower. When he turned on the shower, the cold jet of water made him jump and shiver. He twisted the knob to the hot side, and the water gradually grew warmer. Standing under the warm spray, he exhaled happily at the feel of heat against chilly, sore muscles. After a while, he got to work washing his hair and scrubbing his body clean of any lingering smell from being shoved into the sink of dirty dish water. When he was clean, he stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel to dry himself off. Taking out the first aid kit from under the sink, he retrieved a roll of bandages and wrapped them around his chest to help with the bruised ribs he knew he likely had.

When he was done, Danny replaced the first aid kit then scooped up his clothes in his arms. He padded out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped about his waist and down the hall to his bedroom. Dirty clothes and towel went into the laundry basket. Then Danny grabbed whatever his hand found first from his closet to wear. Once he was dressed, he left his room and walked back downstairs. After what felt like an endlessly long day, Danny only wanted to sit back with his feet up and relax for the rest of the night, but he still had his homework to finish. It would be so easy, and was very tempting, to slack off and ignore his homework for the night, but he knew doing that would give Lancer reason to end their little arrangement of allowing him to skip out of school to take pictures for news stories.

Mr. Carmichael was very displeased when Danny called him up on his way home from school. Danny was tempted to give the man a call after his meeting with Lancer during lunch, but he thought it better to wait in case talking on the phone caused him to get into even more trouble. As angry as he was, Mr. Carmichael understood the reasons for why Danny couldn't make it to the scene of the story, once Danny explained it all to him. Danny promised that it would never happen again, but that really depended on how well he could avoid drawing Calvin's attention to him. He hadn't done very well through his four years at Casper High of staying off the bullies' radar.

Danny entered the kitchen to grab a snack to eat while working on his homework before dinner. But he halted in the doorway, blinking blue eyes in surprise. "Uh, do I want to know what's going on?" Danny cringed, halfway ready to make a run for it if his parents started talking gross. He really didn't expect to come home and find his parents in the kitchen wearing bathrobes instead of their usual jumpsuits.

"Oh, Danny! You're home." His mother turned a smile to him before it fell. She hurriedly got up from her chair at the table and rushed over to him. "What happened?" she asked in concern, her violet eyes wide with horror as she examined the bruise on his cheek.

"It's fine," Danny assured. "Just a little accident at school, but nothing to be concerned about." He smiled at her, hoping that would calm her worries. He knew his parents would be outraged if he ever told them about the bullying he suffered since freshmen year, but that was the reason he didn't tell them. He didn't want them worrying about him every time he left the house to go to school, fearing that the bullies would hurt him even more than before. He didn't want them rushing off to school to have a word with the principal and perhaps draw even more of the bullies' attention onto him. They treated him badly enough already. How would they treat him if they thought he was a tattletale rat crying to his parents for help like a baby?

His mother frowned with concern as she threaded her fingers through his raven hair. "If you say so." Her brows knitted, and her violet eyes said she didn't quite believe him.

"Did you at least give them a good shiner in return?" his father questioned. "You know your mother's a ninth degree black belt." He grinned proudly to his wife.

"Jack!" She turned around with her hands on her hips as she frowned severely at her husband. "We are not encouraging him to act violently at school."

His father ducked his head, looking properly shamed by the scolding. "I just thought if someone attacked him, he should at least defend himself."

His mother turned her gaze back on him, her eyes immediately drawing to the bruise. "It might not be such a bad idea to teach you a few things about defending yourself." Her mouth pursed as if she wasn't entirely pleased with the thought that her son _needed_ to learn how to defend himself because someone was hurting him.

"It's not that bad," Danny said and tried not to show that he was injured elsewhere as he walked toward the refrigerator. "Ninth degree black belt?" His eyebrows rose as he glanced back at his mother. "Why is this the first I'm hearing of it?" He opened the refrigerator door and looked over what they had.

"There's a lot about our past that you don't know about," his mother said, and Danny glanced over in time to catch the grinning look that his parents shared.

"And I think I'm glad for that." Danny shuddered and he grabbed a yogurt from the refrigerator. "And I'm probably going to regret this." He walked over to the drawers where they kept the spoons. "But what's with the bathrobes? And you usually stay down in the basement for another couple of hours before coming out to make dinner." He lifted a curious eyebrow at his parents as he yanked off the cap of the yogurt.

"You should see it, Danny!" his father said, dark blue eyes lighting up in that usual way when he had something exciting to blather on about. "It's a real beauty!"

"That we can't talk about," his mother cut in, and his father's shoulders sagged, the light dimming in his eyes as he frowned. It was always so crushing to see that reaction from his father. "We finally finished work on our latest project. There was a minor," she squeezed index finger toward thumb, "accident that resulted in us having to incinerate our jumpsuits and hop into a biohazard shower. But other than that, it's working like a charm." She smiled proudly.

Danny nearly choked on the spoonful of yogurt. "Biohazard?" He gaped at his parents. "Should we be worried? Like about radiation or something?"

"Nonsense!" his father said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Right?" He glanced toward his wife, looking for reassurance.

"Of course." His mother walked back over to the table and hugged her arms around her husband's neck as she kissed him on the cheek. "We ran checks to make sure nothing harmful leaked out after the accident. We're perfectly safe."

"Good. Because I think you'd have to do some explaining if I suddenly grew a second head." Danny scooped out the last of the yogurt and tossed the container in the trash.

"You wouldn't grow a second head." His father laughed. "Well, not fully, probably." He tilted his head thoughtfully as he considered it.

"So other than that little incident," his mother tapped at her cheek just below her eye to indicate the bruise on Danny's face, "how was school?"

"Same old, same old." Danny shrugged and rinsed off the spoon before putting it in the dishwasher. "Nothing really exciting happened today." He couldn't tell his parents about getting in trouble for fighting then nearly getting drowned by Calvin. They already looked worried enough over a small bruise. "I've got some homework to start on."

"Okay." His mother smiled kindly. "Well, since we're done with work for today, I guess we can have dinner a bit earlier than usual. We'll call you down when it's ready."

"Okay." Danny nodded then headed back upstairs to his bedroom. Once he sat down at his desk, he booted up his computer then started getting out the books he needed for his homework. When he pulled out his math textbook, Danny made a face at it then set it off to the side of his desk. Math, though it would probably take him the longest, could wait until he finished everything else.

"If you keep making faces like that, it might get stuck that way."

"Jazz!" Danny turned fully toward the computer, smiling at the video chat window that had popped up on the screen.

His sister leaned toward the computer, and her aqua colored eyes narrowed, scrutinizing his image on her screen. "Is that a bruise?" She frowned severely at him.

"It's nothing." Danny laughed, though he knew his sister, more than his parents, wouldn't buy the lie. "How's college life treating you?"

"Don' you try changing the topic with me!" Jazz said, wagging a finger at the computer in full worried mother hen mode. "Dash did that to you, didn't he?" Her mouth pursed as anger stormed in her eyes. "Oh! When I see him next time!"

"Jazz! It's okay." Danny sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "I'm pretty sure this," he gestured to the bruise, "was courtesy of Calvin Williams." He grinned as he leaned on desk. "But thanks to a little crush on you, I might have been able to convince Dash to lay off bullying me."

"Well, I'm glad something good could come from that." Jazz wore a sour expression. "But if he thinks that alone will make me agree to go out with him, he's sadly mistaken."

"But it could be the start of Dash growing out of being a bully." Danny pulled his history book toward him and flipped it open to the chapter he was supposed to read for tomorrow. "But seriously, how is college?"

"Sometimes, it feels a lot like being back in high school." Jazz sighed, leaning her head in one hand. "I thought people would be more mature at college, but there's a lot of crazy partiers here that don't seem to care all that much about their education."

"Well, that's something to look forward to," Danny said dryly.

"It's not all bad though. I've made some really great friends here."

"Now, Jazz." Danny gave her a stern stare. "Don't allow them to pressure you into doing anything crazy like getting a tattoo or something." He grabbed at the computer monitor, his eyes growing wide. "You didn't get a tattoo, right?"

Jazz laughed. "Of course not, Danny!" They both laughed, and it took a few minutes before they both recovered. "So how are things with Mom and Dad?"

"Ah, you know," Danny shrugged, "the same as always. They stay holed up in the basement all day working on stuff they can't talk about."

"They aren't causing too much trouble for you, are they?" Jazz frowned with concern.

Danny shook his head. "No, of course not. And they aren't causing some sort of long term psychological problems that will need a lifetime of therapy to work out. I swear you worry far too much."

"I can't help it. I know you haven't had it easy with bullies."

"I perfectly fine, Jazz. There's nothing happening that I can't handle." Danny shuddered and turned his gaze away from the computer. He glanced all about his room but saw nothing unusual or out of place.

"What's wrong?"

Danny wiped the frown from his face as he turned back around in his chair. "Ah, nothing. I just thought I heard something."

"And the shiver?" Jazz raised a skeptical eyebrow at him.

"It was cold! People shiver when they feel a chill, you know. It's not some sort of psychological indicator of a deeper problem." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Anyway, I should probably focus on my homework now."

Jazz sighed. "Yeah, I should get back to studying as well. I'll try to call you again soon. Bye, Danny."

"Bye, Jazz." Danny closed the window on the computer screen. Then he got up and walked over to the window of his bedroom. His room was luckily on the side along the street which allowed him a better view of the night sky. He didn't see anything different as his gaze swept around the street then up to the sky to stare at the stars. Their house was well heated. So why did he feel a sudden chill just then? Danny scratched at his head as he returned to his desk to do his homework.

* * *

**mrs fentonisme**: Thanks! =) I'm glad you liked their interaction. 8D I'll try not too. XD;

**swaqdanny**: *smiles innocently* It could be. If Dash can change his way and show Jazz that he's not just a bully. 8D;; Aw~ Oh no! D: I don't mean to do that thing with your feelings that's not fun! Mysterious Phantom~ 8D Oh, Danny, you don't know what's about to come your way~

**Dark Sadist**: Thanks! =) Phantom should be coming in soon. Ish. Relatively soon. Maybe not in the next chapter, but definitely somewhere in the next few. I think.

**Rii**: There could be some Dash x Jazz. Eventually. 8) Calvin has a problem... and I think that is that he is a sociopath. *sobs into hands* That wasn't my intent! He just came out that way. orz

**midnight**: Yeah. D: Dash may be a jerk, but he at least knows where the line is and not to cross it.

**Some Weird Chick**: Phantom's coming! I swear he's coming in soon-ish. He just hasn't... reached Amity Park yet.

**maltese**: I was pretty oblivious if there was any bullying going on my school. Yup! I can totally see Danny being a photographer! 8D Though maybe that has to do with how much Spider man influenced things?


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 04**

Waking up the next morning, his chest felt sore from the abuse it suffered yesterday at lunch. Some of the bruises faded, but the majority remained dark and ugly. Danny dressed quickly and grabbed his book bag from where it hung off his chair. When he reached the kitchen to grab his breakfast, he raised his eyebrows when he saw his mother serving up a plate of pancakes while his father got out the syrup.

"You're not in the basement?" Danny asked with some surprise as he took his seat at the table.

"Well, since we finished up our latest project yesterday," his father said, joining his son. "So we decided to take a little break and start work a little later than usual today."

Danny nodded as his mother sat down, placing the plate with a large stack of pancakes in the center of the table. "It's good to take breaks. You wouldn't want to overwork yourself, now would you?"

"Quite right," his mother said and took a sip from her glass of water. "But don't think you can use that excuse to slack off and not do your homework." She gave him a stern stare that she used when she meant business.

"I couldn't slack off even if I wanted to." Danny piled some pancakes onto his plate with a grin. He usually felt too lazy in the morning to make anything like pancakes and normally only fixed up a bowl of cereal or oatmeal or occasionally made eggs. "If I don't keep my grades up, Lancer won't allow me to keep up with my job taking pictures for the newspaper."

"That's my boy!" His father gave him a slap on the back, and Danny nearly spilled his water. "Such a go getter! You want to do something, and you get out there and find a way to make it happen. Now if only you took some interest in our work." He frowned, almost pouting.

"Which would be easier if I had any idea what kind of work you did." Danny reached over and patted his father on the shoulder. "I bet it's really fascinating." His father's dark blue eyes lit up with the exciting prospect of talking about whatever they worked on in the basement.

"And yet, we can't talk about it." His mother's stern look turned on her husband, who sighed in disappointment.

Danny frowned as he chewed on a mouthful of pancakes. After he swallowed, he said, "Sometimes, it really sucks that you work for the government. Just," he shrugged, "it would be nice sometimes to hear about what you work on." He frowned as he pushed around the last few bites of his breakfast. "Sometimes people think that because you work so much, you don't care about Jazz and me."

"You know we love though, right?" His mother frowned with worry as she reached across the table to take hold of his hand and squeeze it. His father rested a hand on his shoulder with the same concerned expression on his face.

"Of course." Danny smiled reassuringly at his parents. "It just gets kind of frustrating to hear those comments from the other kids at school. But they don't know anything about our family. You've always been great parents to Jazz and me." He heard a honk from outside. "And that's my ride." He got up from the table and grabbed his book bag. "I'll see you after school." He hugged his father then walked over to give his mother a kiss on the cheek before he hurried to the front door and exited the house. He felt a little guilty even bringing that up to his parents, knowing it probably hurt them and made them feel like he thought they weren't being good parents, but there was a small sense of relief to actually speak up about that frustration.

"How are you today?" Sam asked, frowning at her friend as Danny hopped into the back seat of her car.

"A bit sore," Danny said and rubbed at his chest. "But it's not like I haven't taken a beating before." He shrugged.

"That doesn't make it right." Sam glowered as she pulled the car away from the curb and headed off to school. "Bullies shouldn't be allowed to get away with that."

"They got punished right alongside me, so I can't be too angry." Danny leaned back against his seat. "Not that I'm not angry, because I am. But Lancer really didn't have a choice. I fought back, so he had to include me in the punishment."

"It just sucks though." Sam's hands tightened around the steering wheel.

"You're not going to do something crazy, are you?" Tucker asked, frowning at her with a hint of worry sneaking into his green eyes. "Like start up some crazy campaign to get the school rules changed or something?"

"Why is that crazy?" Sam snapped her head around to glare at him. "Why should victims of bullying be punished if they fight back to defend themselves?"

"Sam, it's a nice idea, but the rule is there to try to stop violence in school," Danny said, raking a hand through his hair. "We're lucky that we weren't just kicked right out of school. And that fight never would have started if it wasn't for Calvin anyway. Heaven forbid I drop their stupid football on the floor and refuse to pick it up after he threw it at me, on purpose, and got my lunch all over me." He rolled bright blue eyes, feeling frustration rising inside him. "Anyway, getting the rule changed won't fix anything. If you want things to change, you need to figure out a way to stop the bullying."

"Oh, and how do I do that?" Sam snapped her gaze to the rearview mirror, glaring at him through it. "Should I go play nice with Paulina?"

"To be fair, it couldn't hurt." Danny winced as those violet eyes narrowed in the reflection of the mirror. "I'm just saying that if we could somehow get the A list to be nice to everyone, bullying would decrease."

"That's far too idealistic, Danny." Sam shook her head.

"I have to agree with Sam on this one," Tucker said with some reluctance. "There's no way the A list will ever start being nice to everyone."

Danny sighed. "Yeah, but it's a nice thought though." He was still holding out on the hope that his talk with Dash yesterday might improve their relationship, at least in the sense that Dash wouldn't bully him as much.

When they arrived at school, they climbed out of Sam's car and headed into the building. Danny swallowed nervously as they neared the A list section of the hall, fearing that Dash would decide to stick to his bullying ways. But they passed without harassment, and when Danny glanced toward the three friends, he saw that Dash didn't even bother to look his way. He smiled a little to himself as he returned his focus to his friends. Maybe things were starting to take a turn for the better, as long as he steered clear of Calvin. After grabbing a book from his locker, he waved goodbye to his friends and headed off to his first class.

Danny was glad he didn't have a class with Calvin as it allowed to stay focused on what the teacher was saying without constantly throwing worried looks around the room to see if the jock was waiting for a chance to beat him up. He sighed tiredly then shuddered as he remembered yesterday during his punishment in which Calvin tried to drown him in dirty dish water. But the memory wasn't the only reason he shuddered. A wave of coldness washed through the room, and he noticed that the other students reacted similarly. He turned his head toward the door of the classroom as the sound of faint giggling caught his ear.

The sound of a ruler slapping against the blackboard jerked everyone's attention back to the front of the class where their teacher stared down her long, hooked nose at them. "Perhaps I should give a pop quiz to see just how many of your were paying attention to today's lesson," she said with a scowling frown as her green eyes narrowed at them, snapping around the room. Every student shook his or her head in response, and their teacher wrinkled her nose before she continued with her lecture.

Danny tried to return his attention to his homework, but his mind kept wandering back to what just happened. He, and everyone else apparently, felt a chill. It was the same as last night. No windows in the room were open, and the school was at a reasonably warm temperature, and the room had no drafts. Why did it feel like the temperature had dropped at least ten degrees? His blue eyes drifted over toward the door to the classroom. And why did he hear that laughter? His brow creased as he turned it over in his mind, but he couldn't come up with any answers.

Shaking the thought from his head, Danny forced his attention back onto what the teacher was saying. He couldn't allow for distractions if he wanted to maintain his grades. When lunched rolled around, he was happy to get out of class and filed out with the rest of his classmates.

"You seemed a bit distracted," Sam said, lifting an eyebrow at him as they walked down the hall with each other.

Danny shook his head. "You didn't feel any weird chills today, did you?" He glanced at her with a worried furrowing of his brow, but Sam merely stared back at him in confusion. "There was this weird moment when-" He shivered like an ice cube was suddenly dropped down his shirt.

"Like that?" Sam hugged her arms about her body as she rubbed at her arms despite the long sleeved shirt she wore.

"Yeah." Danny nodded and glanced about the hall, his ears alert for that laughter he heard the last time. Then he heard it again, faintly in the distance. "I'll catch up with you later!"

"Wait! Danny!"

But Danny jogged down the hall, ignoring Sam's calls as he followed after the sound. He weaved his way through the crowd of students heading for the cafeteria. Turning down another hall, he managed to break away from the sea of students. He glanced back to see the tail end of the students disappearing around the corner before the giggling drew his attention to the other end of the hall. He took a few steps down the hall then paused.

It was faint at first, the woman with silvery blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail with the ends neatly twisted and her flesh had an icy blue hue to it. She laughed as she twirled about the hall with the skirt of her Casper High cheerleading uniform flaring up with the movement. But the uniform didn't match the ones they had. It looked decades old. Her whole appearance made her look out of place as if she was yanked forward from the past. When she spun his way, Danny caught a flash of red eyes. For several long moments, he could only stand there watching, shivering lightly in the chilly hall and barely noticing the way his breath appeared in a puff of white with each exhale.

Then he fumbled around in his book bag, searching for his camera. He barely managed to get it out and snap a photograph before the woman simply vanished from sight. Warmth slowly returned to hall, and Danny blinked several times at where the woman was last seen. Then he dropped his gaze to his camera. Did he actually manage to capture a picture of her?

"There you are!" Sam said when she finally caught up to him. "What happened back there?"

Danny turned around hesitantly to see his friends standing behind him with concerned looks on their faces. "Guys," he said with a massive amounts of uncertainty about whether or not he should even mention it to them, "I think I just saw a ghost." He knew the only way _anyone_ would believe him was if he actually caught the picture of her, assuming that ghosts could even be photographed. He didn't often watch shows with people that investigated the paranormal, but the few times he caught a show like that on television, their pictures were always fuzzy and never anything clear. He would probably be lucky if he merely caught a blur of something misty on film.

"Dude, ghosts aren't real," Tucker said, concern still in his green eyes. "Did you stay up late watching horror movies again?"

"No, I stayed up doing my homework." Danny glanced down at his camera. As soon as developed the roll, he would show them the picture. Though if nothing turned up on the picture, it would only serve to make him look crazy. "She was right there." He pointed down the hall at where the woman was. "I could see right through her!"

"Right, Danny," Sam said, nodding her head, but there was disbelief in her eyes. "Maybe you just _thought_ you saw a ghost. Maybe you just need to get some more sleep at night."

"I'm not crazy," Danny said flatly, frowning at his friends. "And I'll show you. I'll go straight to the dark room and develop this film." He held up his camera then headed down the hall and toward where the school had a dark room for photography class and yearbook pictures purposes. "You two can go head to lunch. I shouldn't be too long."

"We never said you were crazy," Tucker protested as he and Sam hurried to walk with him through the halls.

"You didn't have to _say_ it." Danny's mouth thinned as frustration rolled over him. He knew exactly what he saw, but no one else was there to see it too. It didn't come as a surprise at all that his friends wouldn't believe him when he said he saw a ghost. Before a moment ago, he certainly wouldn't believe anyone else if they said that they saw one.

When they arrived at the dark room, Danny went into it alone and got to work developing the roll of film. He had gone through this process many times over the years and could do it swiftly in the darkness without being able to see.

"Danny, lunch is going to be over by the time you get those pictures developed," Sam said, knocking on the door to the dark room.

"I told you that you could go to lunch without me." Danny opened the door with the developed roll in his hand as he held it up to the light and looked at the final image on the strip. "You can't really see anything like this." He frowned, and his friends leaned in to try and get a better look at the image on the roll.

"I only see the hall," Tucker said as his brow creased and his eyes squinted.

"Just wait until have the time to actually get the picture developed," Danny grumbled, rolling up the film to place into a container from his bag. "Then you'll see." He hoped, at least.

"Well, if we're lucky, maybe we still have enough time to grab something quick for lunch." Sam placed her hands on her friends' shoulders and ushered them out of the photography classroom.

Shoving the film container into his book bag, Danny frowned the entire way to the cafeteria. If that chill in the classroom that morning was the result of a ghost's presence, then did that mean a ghost passed by his room last night while he was talking to Jazz? His brow furrowed as that thought turned over in his mind.

* * *

**Some Weird Chick**: I shall not tell a lie then. 8D *dances away* Ah, no real appearance of Phantom quite yet. But he will certainly be coming in soonish! The story can't really go much of anywhere without him. XD;;;;

**mrs fentonisme**: That is highly likely possibility. 8)

**ghostanimal**: Indeed! He'd probably be a great teacher. XD; And like years down the line, him and Lancer are teacher buddies. XD

**Rii**: Maybe~ *whistles innocently* Haha, yeah. Kind of like that line in What You Want, "Am I interrupting something that I hope I'm not?" XD;;; And so the ghosts begin to appear~ 8D Nothing too harmful yet.

**midnight**: They're both so protective of each other~ Such wonderful siblings! You can, and you would be right! 8D

**jelloshots99**: Because ffnet likes to be mean sometimes. =( Yay getting caught up though! 8D A very good chance that they are.

**Dark Sadist**: Aw~ D: I would have thought that there were more Phantom x Fenton stories. Thanks~ =) Phantom shall come! Soon! Eventually! *isn't good at giving exactly when*


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 05**

Through his next classes after lunch, Danny couldn't keep his mind focused on what the teachers were saying. He did his best to write down notes, but he had the feeling that he would need to ask his friends for their notes. His mind kept turning back to the strange event that happened during lunch, and he wanted to get back to the photography classroom to develop the final image on his latest roll of film. He couldn't make out anything on the small frame of the film, but maybe once the picture was developed, they would be able to see a clearer image of the ghost. At least, he hoped. He really, really hoped that the ghost would show up in the picture. He hated that look his friends gave him, as if he was crazy for suggesting that ghosts really did exist in real life instead of being some sort of supernatural element within stories and movies.

Danny glanced at the clock to see that only about fifteen minutes remained in his second to last class. One more class to go, and he would be able to get the photograph developed. Then he felt a vibration against his hip. After the incident yesterday in Lancer's office, he remembered to set his phone to vibrate so that the ring tone wouldn't interrupt his teachers. Some days, he simply forgot about switching it back to vibrate before school started. Danny shot a glance to the front of the classroom where the teacher was rambling on about something that Danny failed to pay attention to and would probably pay for that later. Slipping his phone out of his pocket, he raised it to his ear.

"Hello," he whispered, hunching over his desk and trying not to draw much attention to himself. A few of the students nearest to him shot him looks of annoyance. Some were probably of jealousy since he got to accept phone calls freely in the middle of class while the other students had to be sneaky about sending text messages.

"Danny, my boy," Mr. Carmichael said in his usual enthusiastic manner whenever there was a hot story happening at the moment. "Why are you whispering?" Confusion replaced his enthusiasm.

"I'm in the middle of class," Danny explained, still keeping his voice low so as not to interrupt the teacher.

Mr. Carmichael fell silent for a brief moment, almost as if it was only hitting him then that Danny was a high school student. "Ah yes! Well, forget about that for now. I got a story that just broke out, and I need you there on scene to capture some pictures as it's happening. Can you make it to the corner of Jackson and Portview quickly? I need you to get there before the whole thing is over. Don't worry. You can't miss it!" Before Danny even had the time to respond, Mr. Carmichael continued, "Great! I expect some amazing pictures when you turn up at my office." Then the call went dead, and Danny was left trying to scramble through the man's fast speech.

With a sigh, Danny grabbed his things and stuffed them into his book bag. Then he darted out of the classroom without needing to say anything to the teacher. He quickly sent a text to Tucker, asking him to take notes in their math class and jot down their assignment for that night. Then he messaged Sam and asked her to take any important notes from the end of their class, though he hoped she would simply give him all the notes as he failed to really listen today. After he informed his friends of his absence in class, he jogged toward the nearest exit of the building and started making his way toward the corner of Jackson and Portview, wondering what he would find once he reached it.

Danny wasn't really much of a runner. He never considered going out of track or anything like that, but after years of running from bullies and racing from school to wherever the scene of a story was happening at that time, he really built up his stamina. It also helped to keep him in pretty decent shape, which he thought was a good thing. When he reached the scene, he was only a touch winded.

His attention, though, turned immediately to what was taking place around him. Firemen were all around shouting out orders and instructions. There was an ambulance or two around, and the EMTs were taking a look at the people that managed to escape the burning building. The scene seemed a bit in chaos as the flames burned within the building.

Danny dug into his bag and grabbed his camera to start taking his shots of everything that was happening. It wasn't really much of a story, in that a burning building didn't usually make it to front page news, but it was something that needed to be reported. Danny took shots of the people being treated after surviving the fire. He recognized Sara Sterling and James Bradley already on scene to interview the survivors that lived in the building. Then Danny turned to snap pictures of the burning building itself. He blinked then zoomed in on an upper floor near the top of the building and adjusted the lens for a clearer shot. There was a young girl, possibly no older than seven, at the window, but she was too short to reach the latch that kept the window locked. If no one helped her soon, she would suffocate from smoke inhalation long before the fire could consume her body.

"Hey!" Danny shouted as he approached one of the firemen trying to put out the flames of the building. "There's a little girl still in there!" He pointed out the window where the girl could be seen.

"Out of the way, kid," the fireman ordered, shoving Danny away with a hard elbow to the ribs that forced Danny to back up a few steps. "We're trying to get this fire put out, and we can't do our jobs with kids getting in the way. We've already got men inside searching for anyone still trapped in the fire."

Danny certainly didn't want to be in anyone's way, especially with the fire raging out of control, but someone needed to do something to save the girl. Firemen might be inside the building, but if they didn't reach the girl quickly, she might not be alive by the time someone got there. Turning his camera back onto the window, he used it like binoculars for a clearer view. The window was empty this time, and he blinked in surprise. Had he only imagined the little girl there the first time? No, he hadn't been able to see through her like the cheerleader that appeared in the hall at school. He glanced around but didn't see her anywhere among the survivors of the fire. Then he cast about in the sky, looking anywhere that he could think.

There! He spotted her floating in the air. Floating? That didn't make much sense. His brow creased as he aimed his camera at the girl. She wasn't alone. He spied someone else with her as she clung to the man with her face buried against his neck. Danny didn't pause to think. He simply started snapping pictures as the pair descended to the street. As soon as they touched down, a woman went running over to them.

"Tris!" the mother cried as she scooped the little girl into her arms, and Danny caught a photograph of the happy reunion as a chill ran down his spine.

"Mommy!" cried the little girl with dirt and grime upon her cheeks and her blonde pigtails in a mess with the left one almost coming undone. She clung to her mother as she sobbed into the woman's shoulder.

Danny turned to take some more pictures of the girl's rescuer, but he vanished from sight shortly afterward. He lowered his camera and stared at where he last saw the rescuer. Was that another ghost? He had faded from sight much like how the cheerleader did at school. For a time, Danny stood there and watched that spot, almost as if he expected the ghost to reappear if he waited long enough. His attention was pulled away from the ghost when one of the firemen pushed him out of the way. Danny focused back on taking pictures of the event going on around him for _The Amity Park Herald_.

When at last the fire was extinguished and the ambulances drove away to take some people to the hospital, the building looked like a disaster. Many of the people that lived in the apartment building gazed at it sadly, having lost their possessions and homes. But other than a lingering cough from the smoke inhalation, they were unharmed. Danny took a few pictures of the aftermath of the destructive force of the fire. Then he slapped the cap back over the lens. He had nothing more to do there, so he left the scene and headed to the usual place to get the film developed so that he could turn the pictures in to Mr. Carmichael.

"Back again?" the man behind the counter asked as Danny handed over his already developed roll of film and removed the second roll from his camera to be developed. Cyrus was a tall, lean man in his early twenties, wearing a red collared shirt with three buttons and beige khaki pants. The outfit looked strange on him when he had tattoos on the visible parts of his arms and around the back of his neck. His hair, which was originally blond, was dyed bright blue, and the short locks were spiked up down the center of his head with the sides shaved. His left eyebrow had two piercings. He didn't look like a man who typically held a steady nine to five kind of job, but he worked at the camera store for as long as Danny had gone there after getting into the whole idea of photography.

"Yup," Danny answered as he leaned on the counter. "I've got to get those pictures to Mr. Carmichael before the end of the day."

"I'll have them ready for you in a jiffy." Cyrus grinned then disappeared into the back to develop the rolls of film into pictures.

Danny, meanwhile, wandered about the shop to take a look around at what they had. He grabbed a few new rolls of film as he was running low on them. Then he glanced over what sort of camera accessories were available. The store had some really nice, latest model cameras, all digital and with special features that he barely would know how to use any of them. After he wandered around for a good while, he returned to the counter and placed the rolls of film on it then leaned against it as he drummed out a beat with his fingers.

"There you are," Cyrus said some time later when he stepped out from the back area with two packages of the developed pictures.

"Thanks, Cy." Danny grinned as he slapped the necessary money down on the counter and collected the two packages. He could always count on Cyrus to make short work of developing the pictures when he needed it in a hurry.

Cyrus rang up the charge for the pictures and the film then handed Danny back his change. "Anytime." His mouth stretched into a grin as he leaned on the counter, watching as Danny tucked the rolls of film into his pocket. "Are you busy this weekend?"

Danny checked the front pictures in one of the packages to identify them. Then he stuffed the one without the pictures from the fire into his book bag. "Huh?" He blinked as he lifted his head to stare at the man. "Uh, I don't know yet. Probably. I have to keep up with all my homework." He groaned and rolled his eyes.

Cyrus nodded with a look of disappointment in his eyes. "Ah, yes. Lots of homework." He frowned. "Well, if you get some free time and want to hang out, most of my weekend is free."

"Oh. Yeah, sure." Danny kept the package with the pictures that he took at the burning building in his hand."I'll see you later." He waved to Cyrus then left the store to head off to the offices of _The Amity Park Herald_. As he walked, he pulled out his cell phone and sent a quick message to his friends, asking if they would be able to meet him to give him the notes and homework assignments from the classes he skipped out on because of the burning building story. He wasn't able to meet with Tucker to get his math assignment from the day before yesterday since his friend ended up being grounded and wasn't allowed out or to have visitors over, even if it was only for a second to pick something up from him.

When he reached the building, Danny entered and was ignored by the rest of the people walking about the lobby area as he headed for the elevators. They either recognized who he was as a photographer for _The Amity Park Herald_ or they really didn't care about some teenager wandering around inside the building. Once inside the elevator, he hit the button for the top floor where Mr. Carmichael's office was. He leaned back against the wall of the elevator and folded his arms as he watched the numbers over the door light up with each floor he passed. On the fourteenth floor, the elevator jerked to a halt, and Danny pushed away from the wall as the doors opened. The noise hit him immediately as he stepped out of the elevator and into the busy offices of the newspaper. People were shouting over each other about deadlines and corrections needed and other things. A poor intern was struggling under the weight of ten coffees to hand out to reporters and editors. The man was hardly that much older than Danny, and half the time he looked about ready to drop from being ordered to run around and fetch things all day long. Danny tucked the package under his arm and unloaded some of the cups of coffee from the man.

"Thanks, Danny," Aaron said with a sigh of relief as they waded their way through the office to hand out the coffee. Despite being older than Danny, he was an inch or two shorter with his chestnut brown hair slicked back. "I was starting to lose my grip on some of them."

"No problem," Danny told him with a grin and a pat on the back. "But next time, you probably shouldn't take on more than you can hold. They can wait a bit before getting their coffees."

"Ha, that's what you think, kid!" Mr. Keagan said and slapped Danny so hard on the back that the teenager nearly stumbled forward into a passing woman carrying a stack of papers. Danny managed to catch his balance before they could collide and send paper flying all over the offices. "Coffee is our life blood," Mr. Keagan continued, not even taking notice of the mishap he nearly caused. He dressed in a plain white collared, button up shirt with suspenders, which gave him the appearance of a newsman from decades ago. It reminded Danny a little of the ghost cheerleader he saw in the hall at school, but when he squinted, he couldn't see any evidence that the man was see through, and there was no chill in the air that seemed to accompany ghosts.

"Give it a rest," Ms. Avery said with a roll of her brown eyes as she straightened the stack of papers in her hands. "You don't need any more coffee in you. What you really need is a plug for that big mouth of yours." She huffed, blowing up a lock of her strawberry blonde hair that had fallen into her eyes. Ever since he started working for _The Amity Park Herald_, Danny couldn't recall a time when Mr. Keagan and Ms. Avery ever agreed on anything. They were like an old married couple that did nothing but bicker all of the time.

Danny gave a quick wave to Aaron as the two reporters started butting heads, yet again. Then he hurried off to Mr. Carmichael's office. He knocked on the door, and the man lifted his head from reviewing papers scattered about his desk. A wide smile broke onto his face when he spotted Danny in the doorway, and he waved his hand in a gesture to invite the teenager into the office. Danny entered, closing the door behind him.

"Ah, Danny, my boy." Mr. Carmichael straightened up his papers and set them off to one side of his desk. "Tell me you got some great shots." He held out a large hand in anticipation of the package of pictures from Danny. As soon as the package was within range, he snatched it right out of the teenager's hand and started flicking through the pictures. "Nope, nope, nope. What is that?" Mr. Carmichael squinted his green eyes at one of the pictures before wrinkling his nose, and Danny felt the twinge of nervousness that always came over him when it looked like Mr. Carmichael might reject all of the pictures that he took. "Nope." He flipped to the next one and stopped. "Well, well." He grinned as he plucked the picture from the package. "This one looks interesting." He held it up for Danny to see.

Danny leaned over the desk to look over the picture, which was the one he took of the ghost holding the girl after he rescued her from the burning building while they still floated in midair. "Oh," he said with some surprise. Excitement built under the surface as he focused on the fact that the ghost could be clearly seen in the photograph.

"I think you might have just landed yourself a front page story." Mr. Carmichael picked up the phone sitting on the corner of his desk and hit a button. "Yeah, get Davis up here right away. I've got a story for him to write." He smiled as he spoke, his gaze upon the picture in his hand.

"What about pictures for the story about the fire?" Danny questioned.

Mr. Carmichael blinked at him. "Ah, yes! Hm." He glanced at the pictures again that he flicked through already. "This and, hm, this. That should do it." He selected the two pictures from the group then handed the package back to Danny. "Talk to Diana on the way out, and she'll pay you for the pictures."

Danny left the office, nearly bumping into Mr. Davis on the way out. Their conversations tended to go like that every time that Danny stopped by to drop off photographs for the newspaper. Mr. Carmichael was very work oriented and didn't typically talk to him about anything beyond news stories. He wasn't married, but everyone in the office said he was married to his work. A small smile twitched at Danny's mouth as he stopped at Diana's desk outside the door of Mr. Carmichael's office.

"Here's your pay." Diana handed him an envelope that contained a check as payment for his pictures that they would be using in the newspaper.

"Thanks. See you next time." Danny tucked the envelope into his book bag. After saying a quick goodbye to the people he knew at the newspaper, he stepped into the elevator and hit the button to return to the lobby.

* * *

**ghostanimal**: TEACHER BUDDIES! Now I almost want to write something with them being teacher buddies. XD Phavorite Phantom!

**Rii**: It's pretty hard keeping up with a bunch of stories at one time. D8 And now NaNo is just around the corner. orz Well, not all the bruises healed. He still has some pretty bad bruising on his chest. It is indeed as the name implies a dark room. XD;; It has to be dark because you take the film out of the camera and roll it around this spindle thing, and if there's any light, the pictures will be destroyed. You know, like in movies where they take pictures of evidence and the bad guy gets the camera and rips out the film. Exposure to light is bad for the film before it's fully developed.

**jelloshots99**: Yeah. D: Aw~ But at least they had their common interest in ghosts so they had each other as friends. Danny just needs to show his friends the truth!

**Dark Sadist**: Well, if not on here, maybe you should check out tumblr? I think there have been some short stories/drabbles posted on there.

**midnight**: You mean a Polaroid? XD;; No, no. He doesn't have one of those. It's a sort of old fashioned one that doesn't have the digital capabilities. Something like the camera that Andrew Garfield had playing Peter Parker in The Amazing Spiderman.

**Some Weird Chick**: Hm, maybe soon? =) *bad at figuring out when exactly people will come into the story* Why thank you! =D No, I'm not a real author. =( That would be cool if I could publish stories though. Thanks! XD I have to run through each chapter before posting to catch any errors. I think I miss some sometime though.

**Guest**: Thank you for the constructive criticism. I know that chapter was a bit slow, but I'm working up to things happening. Ghosts might be appearing in Amity Park now, but it's not like a whole swarm of them suddenly came to cause chaos. Yet.

**Rii**: Ah, yeah. I was out of town for the last two weeks visiting my sister, so it was pretty hard to get any real writing done during that time. orz


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 06**

Danny pulled out his cell phone after he left the building that housed the offices of _The Amity Park Herald_. Sam and Tucker left a message for him, saying that they would be hanging out at Nasty Burger if he wanted to pick up their notes and homework assignments. He tucked his phone back into his pocket, turning down the street in the direction of the Nasty Burger, which despite the name was the favorite hangout of most teenagers in Amity Park and it actually served really good burgers. The problem with it being such a popular hangout meant that the A list were frequently at the fast food joint. Danny only hoped that Calvin wouldn't be there today. He rubbed at his throat, remembering how the jock held him under the dirty water in the kitchen's sink. That was an experience he hoped never to repeat.

Within twenty minutes, Danny arrived at the Nasty Burger. He made a quick sweep around the place to check for the A list. Dash sat in a corner both with Paulina and Kwan, as usual, but none of the three seemed interested in paying him any attention when he entered. Danny walked over to the booth where his friends sat and slid onto the bench beside Tucker. His friends already had their order of food in front of them. Tucker had a big, juicy burger, extra meaty, while Sam ate a salad.

"Did I miss anything important in class?" Danny asked as he sat back to relax.

"Same old, same old," Tucker answered, wiping his hands on a napkin. "Math is so boring." He reached into his book bag to get the notes for Danny.

"You didn't really miss much," Sam said, shrugging as she pushed around what remained of her salad. "Homework is basically reading chapter eight in our textbook and answering the questions at the end."

"Great," Danny grumbled as he took the notes from Tucker. He was a little disappointed that Sam didn't present him with any notes from their class, but with that assignment, it sounded like he could manage to get through it without them. He glanced quickly over the notes from Tucker and wrote down the homework that Sam mentioned. "Ugh! We have to do twenty-five math problems tonight?"

"Yup." Tucker patted him on the shoulder as Danny groaned. His friends were both aware that math was probably his worst subject in school.

"So what was the big emergency story this time?" Sam questioned as she folded her arms and leaned back against the booth.

"There was a building on fire." Danny reached over and stole a fry, or seven from Tucker, who protested too late to stop his friend from cramming the fries into his mouth. He grinned as Tucker gave him a shove, though his friend wasn't really angry with him.

"Did you manage to get that picture from lunch developed?" Tucker picked up his burger and took another big bite from it. "You know," he continued with his mouth full, "the one with the ghost." He chuckled until Sam, who had her nose wrinkled in disgust, kicked him in the shin under the table. Danny reached over and patted him on the back as Tucker started coughing.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Sam said, looking rather grossed out by it.

"You didn't have to kick me!" Tucker argued after he managed to swallow his food without choking on it.

Danny rolled his eyes, hoping this wouldn't dissolve into another one of their meat versus vegetables debate. He searched around inside his book bag to find the other package of pictures. "I haven't had the chance to check it out, but I'm pretty sure she'll show up on it." He sifted through the pictures as Sam moved to their side of the booth. She and Tucker both leaned over Danny to watch him check through the pictures until he finally found the one that he took at lunch.

"Whoa," Sam and Tucker both breathed out as they stared at the picture in Danny's hands. The cheerleader ghost wasn't as visible as the ghost from the fire, but they could still make her out, a faint image like an overlay from another picture over the one of their school's hall.

"I see it," Tucker said, taking the picture and holding it closer to his face as he examined it, "but I can still hardly believe it."

"Ghosts really do exist?" Sam shook her head. "I'm sorry for not believing you before, but you have to admit it sounded pretty crazy at the time."

"I don't blame you for not believing," Danny said with a small smile, relieved that the cheerleader showed up in the picture. He didn't want his friends thinking he was crazy for believing that ghosts existed.

"But what exactly does this mean?" Tucker handed the picture back to Danny with a frown. "There was never a ghost at school before," he explained when his friends merely stared at him. "From how she's dressed, I'd say she's from at least fifty years ago. So if she's been at the school haunting it all this time, why are you the first to see her?"

Danny shrugged, having no answer, but the question brought a wrinkle to his brow as he stared at the picture. "I wasn't the only one that heard her. The other students could hear her while we were in class." He chewed on his lip for a moment, debating whether or not to tell his friends about it. "Actually, I saw another ghost at the scene of the burning building. He rescued a little girl that was trapped inside."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Sam held up a hand as she shook her head. "A ghost rescued a human? Doesn't that sound a little, I don't know, crazy?" She frowned at Danny with her brow pinching. "How could a ghost even touch her? Aren't they, you know, intangible or something?"

"I don't know!" Danny argued, grumpiness settling inside him as he felt, again, like his friends didn't believe in what he told them. "It's not like I've done extensive research into what ghosts can and can't do!"

"You don't need to get angry, Danny." Tucker rested a hand on his friend's shoulder, perhaps hoping to calm Danny. "We're just trying to understand what's happening. This is pretty new for us too."

Danny glanced between his friends then sighed as he hung his head. "Sorry," he mumbled, feeling even worse. "I guess I'm just getting upset because you two have never doubted me like this before. It hurts."

"You have to admit though. This is a lot for us to take in," Sam pointed out as she reached out and squeezed Danny's hand. "Tell you what. We can all do some research into this."

"We can?" Tucker asked doubtfully.

Sam glared at him as if daring him to give her an excuse to kick him again. "Yes," she hissed firmly, "we can. You're all tech savvy, Tucker. Searching for everything about ghosts on the internet should be a piece of cake for you. But if you think it's too hard," she trailed off with a smirk, knowing any suggestion of doubt in his ability would spur Tucker into doing everything to prove her wrong when it came to technology.

"Ha! I'll have more information than you within a night."

"Oh? You think?" Sam looked unimpressed by Tucker's claim. "I bet I'll find out more than you."

"You're on!" Tucker jumped to agree to the bet, and Danny rolled his eyes, knowing that was exactly what Sam wanted. "And when I win, you," Tucker thought for a moment, "have to wear a dress. To school. And not a black one."

Sam's brow twitched at that last point. She had for years dodged having to wear the pink and floral frilly dresses that her mother insisted on trying to make her wear. "Then when I win, you have to eat salad. For a week."

"Deal!" Tucker agreed, confident in his ability with technology.

Danny wasn't sure which one of them would actually win the bet. Tucker was a whiz when it came to technology, but Sam had ways of proving quite the contender in this sort of bet. No matter which one won, Danny was glad to see them both helping him with this sudden ghost problem. He stuffed the pictures back into the package they came in then returned it to his book bag.

"Well," Danny sighed, "I should probably get home. I have all that homework to finish up before tomorrow."

"Oh!" Tucker said as Sam slid out to allow Danny to climb to his feet. "They're doing a monster movie marathon on Saturday. Think you'll be free to join us?"

"I'm pretty sure I can get my homework done in time to make it," Danny answered, slinging his book bag across his chest. "But there's always the risk that I'll get called away to take pictures for a story." He winced. He loved his job with the newspaper, but it did have a tendency to cut into his personal time with his friends.

"That job really takes up a lot of your time," Sam said with a frown.

"Yeah, but just think," Tucker said. "He's already got his foot in the door if he plans to pursue a career of being a newspaper photographer. Even if he doesn't stay with _The Amity Park Herald_, he'd have plenty of people there to give him references to other places. That's more than most of us can say. It's not like you and I have jobs."

Sam's mouth pursed as she glared at him. "Maybe we should consider getting jobs that align with our interests in our career choices."

"First you're making me do research about ghosts. Now you want me to get a job too?" Tucker groaned, slouching in the booth.

"It's not all that bad, Tuck. You'd probably be great at any place that deals in tech," Danny offered. "Anyway, I'll see you at school tomorrow." He gave his friends a wave as they said a quick goodbye before settling back into the discussion of jobs. He left the Nasty Burger, stretching his arms over his head. As tempting as it was to run home and start doing some research on ghosts, Danny knew he had put his focus on his homework as he started walking home.

When he arrived at his house, Danny entered and headed immediately into the kitchen. His parents, of course, were locked up in the basement again from the sounds of banging and an occasional yelp of pain from his father who likely misjudged something as he worked on whatever they did in the basement. Danny yanked open the refrigerator door and paused when he saw a note on something on the middle shelf.

_Danny,  
__I made a pizza for you. Just heat the oven to 450° and pop it in for at least thirty minutes.  
__Love, Mom_

Danny smiled as he found the small premade pizza waiting for him and took it out of the refrigerator. Then he walked over to the oven and set it to preheat to four hundred and fifty degrees. As he waited on that to finish, he returned to the refrigerator and grabbed the milk to pour a glass. Then he sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out his books, deciding to get started on his homework while waiting on the pizza. Math made his head spin, but he started reviewing the notes Tucker took and got to work on the problems for his homework.

He only got the first four finished by the time the oven beeped to announce the oven was fully heated. Getting up, he walked over and put the pizza into the oven then set the timer for thirty minutes. When he returned to his homework, he scratched his head over some of the problems, feeling certain that he wasn't getting the answers right. Halfway finished with his math homework, Danny paused when the timer went off. After taking out the pizza and cutting it into slices, he returned to the table with a plate stacked with two of the slices. He munched on the pizza as he continued working on his homework.

"Ugh, I hate math!" Danny grumbled to himself long after the pizza was finished. He was stuck on the last problem, and even though he wasn't some genius in math, he was pretty certain the answer wasn't negative one thousand and fifty-two. After erasing his work on that problem, he started over, trying to figure out where he went so wrong in solving it. When he came to an answer of thirty-seven, he decided that was probably close enough. With a sigh of relief, he closed his textbook, happy to have the frustration of math over with for the night.

Danny carried his plate over to the sink and quickly washed it, and the pan in which pizza was cooked. Then he grabbed his things and headed upstairs to finish up the rest of his homework before dinner. He collapsed into the chair at his desk, dropping his book bag onto the floor beside him. When he reached into his bag, the first thing to meet his hand was one of the packages of pictures. He pulled it out and flipped through them, pulling out the one of the cheerleader from school. For a while, he stared at it, still amazed that she showed up despite being see through.

"Too bad Mr. Carmichael took that picture of the ghost from the fire," Danny mumbled as he set the picture aside on his desk. He started to grab his books when a thought occurred to him. At the scene of the fire, he snapped more than a single picture of the ghost rescuing the girl! He dug through his book bag until he found the second package of pictures. Then he started searching through all of them, stopping when he came to one of the girl and the ghost. But the pair were still fairly high up in the air. He continued through the pictures, watching the pair descend from the sky and touch down on the ground. Then he stopped and stared at the picture just after the mother rushed forward to hug her daughter.

The ghost stood behind them without a trace of being see through like the cheerleader. He looked solid enough to reach out and touch him without a hand passing through him. It brought Sam's question back to his mind. Ghosts were thought to be intangible. Why did this ghost not look that way? Danny frowned as he examined the picture of the ghost. His white hair was slicked back out of his face, which was marked by soot. His green eyes glowed with a hint mischievousness, and that little quirk of a smile at the sight of the reuniting mother and daughter made Danny sigh, wishing that the ghost would smile like that at him. A furious flush exploded onto his cheeks as he slapped the picture down onto his desk and covered it with a hand.

"What am I thinking?" Danny asked the empty room. A strange feeling twisted inside him, making his blush grow darker. After a moment, he drew his hand away from the picture to give it another look. The ghost was, indeed, quite handsome with a strong jaw line, very nice muscle definition, tight pants. Danny found himself blushing again as he wished he caught an image of the ghost from behind to check out his butt. He buried his face in his hands, groaning with confusion running rampant in his head. Why was he getting all flushed and flustered over a ghost, and a male one at that? He never had this sort of feeling toward any living man in his memory. But - Danny spread his fingers to glance at the picture again - the ghost was very attractive. He had no hope of denying that fact.

* * *

**swaqdanny**: Yay updates! 8D Who else would it have been? 8)

**leolove17**: Thanks! =D

**Citrus-y peas**: I'm back! =D And it's great to be back~ Oh no, don't explode! D:

**Some Weird Chick**: It's Phantom! Wee! Phantom's there! 8D Now Danny just has to actually meet Phantom. XD;; Why thank you! =) I'm glad I can bring a smile to your face with my writing~

**Rii**: Thanks! =) It was pretty fun. Lots of walking around. You're welcome. =) The chapter did get away from me a bit. XD;;; I didn't realize that I had already pretty much written about 2.7k for the chapter while working on it on my ipad. The ipad notes is very deceptive in how long something is! I kept fearing that it was still pretty short. Phantom shall be explained. 8) Eventually. Well, Danny's had this photography job for three years now. Lancer talked to the other teachers about how he gave Danny the free pass to leave school if he was called to photograph a news story. After a while, all the teachers got annoyed with him asking to be excused so they just let him duck out of class without a word so that Danny's not constantly interrupting their classes. orz

**jelloshots99**: Yay, I'm back! =D I wouldn't be surprised if he does get paid more. XD Front page news is always a big thing.

**ghostanimal**: There shall be teacher buddies! I didn't mean for it to be so Spiderman-like. XD;; But I guess it's hard to completely avoid when Danny is pretty inspired by Spiderman. XD;;

**midnight**: The only Spiderman I've actually seen is the movies they made recently and the Spectacular Spiderman cartoon. *still unhappy that they cancelled that for Ultimate Spiderman* =(

**Conan02**: Thanks. I've corrected that one.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 07**

Danny shoveled a spoonful of cereal into his mouth as he sat at the kitchen table eating his breakfast. He tried to push away that feeling of embarrassment to little effect. After he finished up all of his homework, he spent the remainder of his night putting together a little scrapbook of sorts with the pictures of ghosts that he had taken. He labeled them with the date that he took the picture and the location of their appearance. It seemed like a rather silly thing to do now that he thought about it, but for some reason this whole thing about ghosts inspired him to keep track of the ones that he encountered and what he knew about them.

"Hm."

Danny glanced over at his parents, who were for another rare moment having breakfast with him. They had the newspaper before them as they both leaned their heads in, hiding behind the paper as they read over the front page news. Danny felt a little pride when he caught a glimpse of the newspaper earlier and saw his photograph of the ghost rescuing the girl under the front page headline. He didn't get a real chance to read over the article since his parents grabbed hold of the newspaper and basically buried themselves in reading it. Danny's brow furrowed slightly, finding the whole thing curious. His parents didn't often show such interest in the news.

"Anything interesting?" Danny asked, trying not to sound overly curious. The newspaper slowly lowered, and Danny gulped at the stares his parents gave him that made him feel like he was about to be in major trouble, even though he hadn't done anything wrong. Lately.

"You took this picture?" His father frowned severely, a rather unnatural expression for the usually jovial man, as he turned the newspaper around to point at the picture. With his large hand though, most of the headline was covered up, and all Danny could read of it was: -lain?

"Yes," Danny answered slowly as his brow creased even further at his parents' strange behavior. "I was assigned to take pictures when a building caught on fire."

His mother leaned over the table, concern in his violet eyes. "You didn't," she hesitated, throwing a quick glance to the picture before turning back to her son, "meet the one in the picture, did you?"

Danny shook his head, confusion still spinning about in his head. "No, he left immediately after rescuing the girl. I caught a shot of the girl reuniting with her mother, and when I turned back, he was gone." He couldn't explain it, but he had this feeling that it was probably best not to tell his parents about the other pictures he had of the ghost. Their reaction to the single photograph that made it into the newspaper didn't sit well with him.

His parents exchanged a look before they both stood from the table. "We have some work to do," his father announced, tucking the newspaper under his arm as he headed for the door to the basement.

"Okay. I'm going to be heading off to school soon." Danny finished up the last of his cereal.

"Have a good day." His mother dropped a quick kiss onto the top of her head before she followed her husband into the basement.

Danny frowned at the closed door, puzzling over his parents' reaction and questions. After he washed up his bowl from breakfast, he grabbed his book bag then headed out the front door. He didn't have to wait long before Sam's car pulled up to pick him up for school. He hopped into the back of the car and relaxed back against the seat as Sam started heading for Casper High.

Tucker turned around in the front seat. "Did you see the front page?" His frown brought back Danny's confusion.

"My picture was on it," Danny answered, "but I didn't get the chance to read it."

Tucker produced the front page of the newspaper from his book bag then handed it to Danny. The title over the photograph read in big bold letters: Hero or Villain? Danny scanned through the article written up by Mr. Davis. The reporter had, apparently, tracked down the girl that was rescued by the ghost to interview her about what happened. Tris Malone, age six, suffered only minor effects from the smoke inhalation thanks to a mysterious, white haired man showing up to rescue her before the effects could worsen. When asked to retell her terrifying story of being trapped in the burning building, Tris talked about how scared she had been until an angel, as she described the ghost, swooped in to save her. Tris wished she had the chance to give the angel her thanks. But Mr. Davis continued the article to question whether this mysterious man was indeed the angel that Tris thought he was. Or was he the perpetrator of the fire and used it as a means of looking like a hero to the public? The forensic evidence wasn't in yet to determine what exactly caused the fire, but Mr. Davis promised he would be looking into it and would write again when he discovered the truth behind the fire.

"They're trying to paint him up as a villain?" Danny shouted after he finished reading through the article. "He _rescued_ her! How does that make him the villain?"

"That's how it works," Sam said with bitterness in her voice. "Some weird person appears out of nowhere with white hair and the ability to fly? It's like those comic books with mutant superheroes. They get painted up as villains by the media and those people that are terrified that the mutants have some secret agenda to annihilate the human race. It sucks, and it's unfair, but that seems to be the way their mentality works." Her hands squeezed tightly around the steering wheel.

"He's only a ghost," Danny argued with a frown. "If he hadn't been there, that girl could have died."

"And now they're trying to make it sound like it was way too coincidental that he just happened to appear at the exact right moment," Tucker said, but his troubled expression said that he didn't like what the paper wrote anymore than Danny did. "It's just their way of making news."

"Yeah, well, it's _my_ picture they're using to make him look bad." Danny didn't like that fact. The ghost did something good and heroic. He didn't deserve to be painted up like some kind of a hero worship seeking villain.

"Oh! But look what _I_ managed to dig up last night," Tucker said, shooting a smug smirk at Sam before he grabbed something from his book bag.

Danny stared at the printed sheet handed to him. It had a picture of a young woman that looked to be from fifty years ago. Under the picture read the name: Annalisa Johnson. Danny's jaw nearly dropped to see that the woman was the same one that he took a picture of yesterday. Annalisa was a seventeen year old cheerleader from a moderately wealthy family with plenty of friends. The details listed about her life made it _sound_ like everything was happy and perfect for her, until he read the part about how her family moved to Amity Park to escape a man that was stalking their daughter. Her real name was Delilah Mills, but the new identity didn't save her. Her stalker Carl Peters tracked her down and killed her at the high school.

"That's awful!" Danny gawked at his friends, wishing this was some kind of nightmare. When he saw her ghost, he never stopped to think about how she might have died. How did the ghost from the fire die? Was he drawn to the burning building because he died in a fire?

"Well, according to some research, ghosts only come to be after some sort of traumatic death," Sam explained. "Something about the post human consciousness forming from ectoplasm. Or something like that."

"Oh! I remember something about that," Tucker said as Sam parked her car in one of the slots at school. "Some guy back in the eighties wrote his thesis paper on the obsessive nature of ghosts. Apparently ghosts are supposed to have some obsession that they're completely focused on. What was his name?" Tucker pondered over it as they climbed out of the car and headed into the school building. "I think it started with a V. Or was it a W?" He scratched at the back of his head. "M, maybe? Well, the name doesn't really matter, I guess."

"Ghosts have an obsession?" Danny's eyebrows lifted in surprise. "So what would Delilah's obsession be? She didn't seem to have some sort of vendetta against her killer or anything when she was giggling and dancing about the hall."

"I have no answers on that." Tucker shrugged, shaking his head.

"But that guy was only theorizing it, right? I mean, it's not like he had any proof or actual ghosts to test the theory on," Sam pointed out as they reached their lockers. "The whole obsession thing could just be an idea he had and managed to write a logical argument on to suggest that it was a plausible idea for ghosts to function under some sort of obsession."

"But there is some sense to it." Danny opened up his locker and grabbed a textbook. "If a ghost is formed from the post human consciousness of someone that died, traumatically, then we might assume that what they felt in that exact moment of death, their strongest emotion, is the main basis of their existence, leading to some sort of obsession. It also adds to that whole idea of ghosts having unfinished business. Their unfinished business might stem from whatever their obsession is. Like, if someone died with the idea of revenge in mind, their obsession might be going after whoever killed them." Danny blinked when he noticed his friends staring at him. "What?"

"You actually sounded like you'd done research on this before," Sam said as she closed her locker.

Danny shrugged. "Just trying to make sense of this. What if those two ghosts aren't the only ones that are here? What if there are violent ghosts that start popping up? It would be good to be prepared and figure out all we can about ghosts."

"Yeah, but how do you stop a ghost?" Tucker questioned, his mouth thinning with concern.

"That, I don't know yet." Danny sighed. "But all the more reason to do some more research on ghosts. I'll see you at lunch." He waved to his friends then hurried down the hall to his first class.

School was about as exciting as always, which was to say not all that much, but now Danny was impatiently waiting a chance to dig more into the information about ghosts. He passed Dash in the hall between classes, and though the jock didn't treat him like a friend, Dash at least wasn't pushing him around and harassing him anymore. During one passing, he heard Paulina mention that she managed to convince her father to buy her a ticket to the Dumpty Humpty concert so that she could go with Dash and Kwan. Danny smiled to himself, feeling like his school life was finally get a bit better.

"Hey!" Danny yelped in surprise as someone grabbed hold of his arm when he was leaving his last class before lunch. He stumbled over his feet, wincing when it felt like the person was about to rip his arm right out of its socket. "Let go!"

But the person didn't release hold of him until they were outside in the school parking lot. Yanked forward, he was thrown into the side of one car. When he spun around, Danny gulped with fear as Calvin stood before him. If it was Dash, Danny thought he could find some way to talk the blond jock out of pounding on him, or he could get lucky and have Kwan pop up out of nowhere to distract Dash, which happened frequently. Calvin, on the other hand, wasn't one to listen to logic. All he cared about was making less popular students hurt as much as possible.

"You know, Calvin, maybe we can talk about this," Danny said, hunching down as he held his arms up before him. He doubted it would do him any good to try talking to Calvin, but he could give it a shot. If nothing else, maybe he could delay the bully until a teacher or someone else showed up to stop him. "What did I ever do to you to make you hate me so much?"

"If you don't know," Calvin smirked as he raised up a fist, "maybe a few knocks to the head will jog your memory."

"Yeah," Danny said with awkward slowness, "I don't think that's such a good idea." He flinched prematurely when Calvin drew back his fist in anticipation of the coming beating.

At the screech of wheels, Danny cracked open an eye that he had clamped shut. A motorcycle skidded to a halt, and Calvin immediately jumped out of the way. Danny was fairly certain his heart stopped for a good minute as the motorcycle neared him and settled to a stop just inches from him. The man driving the motorcycle laughed, looking over his shoulder at the woman clinging to him with her arms wrapped tightly around his body and her face buried in the back of his biker's jacket. While the man with shoulder length blond hair looked as solid as any human, the woman with her bizarre neon green hair and very pale skin had that same see through quality as the cheerleader. But she was only slightly transparent in comparison to the cheerleader. Danny shivered at the chill that came with the presence of the ghost.

"What the hell?" Calvin shouted, getting over his fright of nearly being hit by the motorcycle as his rage returned.

The blond man turned his green eyes onto the jock then snorted at the sight of him. "Oh, a big bad jock," he said in mock terror. "I guess the world really hasn't changed that much." He grinned as he leaned on the front of his motorcycle.

The woman climbed off the motorcycle, combing her fingers through her strangely colored hair. "Looks like the jocks are still as dumb as ever too," she said, her eyes glowing bright red. "Should I take care of him?" She smiled to the blond man.

"What is wrong with you freaks?" Calvin demanded then shook his head. "Never mind. That doesn't matter. I'll just kick all of your asses."

"You'd beat up a woman?" Danny asked with disgust in his voice. "You really have no conscience, do you?"

"Oh, don't worry." The woman turned her smile onto Danny. "He won't be able to lay a hand on me."

Danny had no doubts about that statement. If ghosts were primarily intangible, any punch he tried to throw at her would only go right through her. But that didn't mean he had to like the fact that Calvin would actually try to hit a woman. "Calvin, just leave them alone," Danny said, glaring at the jock. "They didn't mean you any harm."

"Didn't mean me any harm?" Calvin growled, fists curling tightly at his sides. "They nearly ran us both over, Fenton."

"Ugh! This is so tiring!" The woman placed a hand to her mouth then blew on her hand like blowing a kiss to him.

Danny swore he saw soft blue lips fly through the air from her hand to the jock. When it struck him, Calvin suddenly vanished from sight, and Danny jumped in surprise.

"What did you just do?" Danny shouted, though he couldn't say he was all that disappointed to see the jock gone. "Where did he go?"

"Just a small talent I have." The woman smiled with a shrug, clearly not concerned about what happened to the jock. "I actually don't really know where that sends him. But if it causes him a little harm, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. He seems like a pretty big jerk."

"Well, you're not wrong there," Danny mumbled, only feeling slightly bad about Calvin's disappearance. His brow wrinkled as he glanced between the pair. "I get that she's a ghost. But you," he looked over the man, "don't look like a ghost." But even as he said it, he remembered the ghost from the fire.

"Oh, I'm a ghost too." A wry smirk spread onto the man's face. "I'd show you my little trick, but," he glanced up, putting a hand to his eyes as he stared at the bright sun, "that's really more of a night thing."

"Say," the woman said as she leaned her hands on the back end of the motorcycle's seat. "You wouldn't happen to know of a good spot for us, would you? You know, some sort of abandoned building where we could set up a place to stay?"

"Uh," Danny said, blinking in bafflement. "Well, there is an old warehouse on the edge of town that hasn't been used in years."

"Hey, thanks, kid! You're pretty all right." The man grinned then it fell as his brow knitted. "For a human, you're surprisingly calm about running into ghosts."

"Well, I saw one yesterday, and you don't seem like you plan on actually hurting me." Danny frowned slightly, remembering what just happened to Calvin. He really hoped the woman didn't decide to do that to him too. Then he thought of something. "Maybe you can help me out with something." He dug into his book bag, and feeling really silly about it, he pulled out one of the photographs from the burning building. It wasn't even the best picture of the ghost, but for some reason, he decided to carry it around with him. His cheeks grew warm as he stared at the image of the ghost just before he touched down on the ground with the girl. "Do you know anything about this ghost?" He held out the picture for the two ghosts to see.

Both ghosts leaned forward to look at the picture. "So he managed to make it here too," the man mumbled thoughtfully.

"You know him?" Hope entered Danny's voice.

"He goes by Phantom," the woman explained as she stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips. "We met him once. He wasn't all that bad once we actually sat down and talked."

"Why Phantom?" Danny frowned as he stared at the picture. He had hoped that these ghosts would be able to give him a real name, perhaps the name the ghost had when he was still alive.

The woman shrugged. "That's the only name he gave us. Not very creative. Being a ghost and calling himself Phantom."

The name Phantom was better than not knowing any name to call him. "Do you think I can get your picture?" Danny asked, returning the picture to his book bag then bringing out his camera. "I'm kind of making a scrapbook of all the ghosts I encounter."

"Oh! A picture!" The woman clapped her hands excitedly. She climbed back onto the back and wrapped her arms around the man's neck, smiling as she posed. The man didn't seem as happy about having his picture taken and glared at the camera with a grumpy frown. Danny adjusted his lens then snapped a picture of the pair.

"And if you're curious, I'm Johnny," the man said. "This is my girl Kitty." He smiled fondly at the woman behind him.

Danny stared at them before coming to the slow realization that the pair had probably been a couple before dying. He was curious about how they died, but he stopped himself from asking. Did ghosts remember how they died? Was it taboo to ask them about their deaths? He didn't want to cause any offense to them by asking sensitive questions.

"I'm Danny."

"Thanks for the tip on a spot to haunt, Danny." Johnny gave him a two finger salute then revved the engine of his motorcycle.

"Uh, before you go," Danny said with a wince and thought he would probably regret this, "could you return Calvin? I know he's a jerk, but having him just disappear off the face of the planet will only cause a lot of problems for everyone."

Kitty sighed. "Well, if you insist. But I think you're better off without him." She repeated her earlier action of blowing a kiss. Calvin suddenly materialized before them. He took one look at them then ran with a scream toward the back entrance of the school. "I guess he's not that much of a big bad jock after all." The corner of her mouth twisted into a smirk.

Danny tried not to laugh. "Thanks for your help." He waved as the pair of ghosts drove away on their motorcycle. Then he walked toward the school. He had a name to go with the mysterious white haired ghost. A smile spread onto his face at that fact.

* * *

**swaqdanny**: Who could resist Phantom's booty? XD;; Soon~ Or, at least, I hope soon. I get the feeling that when I promise something is going to be "soon," it ends up being, like, 5 chapters later. orz

**Dr. Strawberries**: Well, there's no denying that Phantom is hot, right? XD;; It's not really magic of any sort. Not like Phantom cast a spell to make Danny fall in love with him. But Danny is feeling rather silly about thinking Phantom is attractive despite knowing that he's a ghost.

**Some Weird Chick**: XD I'm glad I could make you laugh~ Aw, why thank you! 8D I'm glad you think so! =) I remember getting a review once, years ago, from someone that said they wouldn't read my stories because they were too long. *scratches head* But I'm glad you gave one of my stories a chance and liked it! =)

**Married to Danny**: Ah~ It would be so easy to just jump ahead and throw Phantom in right away. D8 And it's rather tempting to do that. orz Let's hurry up with the FenPhan meeting!

**Rii**: Yeah. XD I'd imagine teachers would get rather annoyed with him constantly ducking out whenever a story came up. XD;; Yes, slicked back hair~ Though I really like him with the ponytail too. I hadn't quite pinned down a look for his top and all yet. D8

**midnight**: Next thing you know, Danny's doodling little hearts in his notebook with his and Phantom's names. XD;; *shot* I'm kidding! It is... very difficult! D8 I swear I will not write three stories all at once ever again. It's taking a lot of mental power to keep the stories straight. orz


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 08**

Danny flipped through the multitude of pictures. Since his first sighting of a ghost, he had seen at least a dozen over the next week. Several of them were nice, or at least showed no interest in harming anyone. But after the information that Sam and Tucker gathered on Annalisa Johnson, aka Delilah Mills, Danny grew curious about the other ghosts that he encountered and dug into their history, when he had spare time after studying for school and keeping up with his photography job with the newspaper. He searched for anything that he could find on Phantom, but without a real name, he didn't have much to go on so couldn't uncover much information.

Danny did a search for anyone named Johnny and Kitty and came up with a couple of teenagers, eighteen and seventeen, who died about ten years ago. Their parents called them "troubled" and said they liked to hang out with a bad crowd. Kitty's parents stated that they always feared that Johnny would end up getting their daughter killed, claiming "bad luck" always seemed to follow him around like a shadow. On the night of their death, it had rained horribly, and the pair got into an accident while riding on Johnny's motorcycle. They were dead before the ambulance could even reach them, but according to the reports, Johnny had crawled his way over to where Kitty lay and died holding onto her hand. It was a tragic story, but Danny had to smile a little when he realized that they stayed together even in death.

There were a number of other ghosts that he encountered who all met terrible ends. One of them proclaimed himself the Box Ghost. His appearances were more irritating than terrifying with his constant shouting of "Beware!" and throwing around cardboard boxes. Danny gave a copy of the picture he took to Tucker and Sam. With some sort of facial recognition program, that Danny really didn't know how his friend got, Tucker managed to find an article on the man's death from about twenty-five years ago, but he couldn't find any hits when he tried with Phantom's picture. Bill Palmer was a thirty-something delivery man with a wife, who reported him missing shortly before Christmas. His wife was two months pregnant at the time. Bill's body was found later at the packing warehouse where he was buried under boxes and had his spine broken. After learning the truth behind the Box Ghost's death, Danny found it impossible to laugh like others when the ghost made one of his appearances and looked like a fool.

The truth behind the ghosts' deaths only made Danny feel like he was spiraling down a dark staircase into depression, but after he started down this path, he couldn't simply ignore the lives these ghosts once had. Mr. Carmichael, however, didn't care as much. Whenever Danny tried to give him the information that he discovered about the various ghosts that were now appearing all over town, Mr. Carmichael shooed him away with some nonsense about letting the _real_ reporters write the stories. The stories, of course, all depicted ghosts in a bad light, making them out to be villains bent on terrorizing the people of Amity Park with the mysterious white haired ghost Inviso-Bill, they refused to listen to Danny when he told them the ghost was named Phantom, as their ring leader. Mr. Carmichael refused to let up on the whole concept that Phantom was some hero worship seeking villain, even after the forensic report came back from the fire saying that it was caused by a gas leak in one of the apartments that set the fire ablaze by accident when the occupant turned on the stove without knowing about the gas leak.

It frustrated Danny to no end to watch the way his photographs were twisted around to paint Phantom in a bad light. He was always right there when Phantom appeared on the scene. He saw how Phantom stopped robbers that broke into a jewelry store. He stumbled onto that event by mere accident when he passed through the shopping district of town on his way to one of his favorite spots to photograph the night sky. When the more violent of ghosts started stirring up trouble, Phantom would appear to stop them from harassing the people. Phantom was protecting the town, but the media seemed eager to crucify him for it. People had differing opinion of Phantom's activities. Those that were rescued by him tended to see him as a hero, as did many of the teenagers. Danny saw plenty of students at his school wearing shirts with Inviso-Bill written across them, though he wasn't sure where they got the shirts. Many of the adults, especially the police, considered Phantom to be a menace.

Each day, Danny noticed his parents seemed to grow more agitated about something each time Phantom appeared on the front page of the newspaper. He tried asking them about it once, but they brushed away the question, saying they had work to do. They even had whispered phone calls that they would immediately hang up on if they spotted Danny coming into the room. He tried to listen in on the calls, but his parents talked too softly for him to hear. They never seemed happy after they hung up the phone.

Lost in his thoughts, Danny didn't pay much attention to his surroundings. He slammed into something, or rather someone. They both fell to the ground with Danny's pictures spilling over the floor.

"Sorry!" Danny said immediately as he scrambled to pick up all his pictures before they could get trashed by the passing students in the hall.

"Sorry?" the woman shouted, and Danny snapped his head around to discover the identity of with whom he collided. He nearly winced when he spotted Valerie Gray sitting on the floor next to him with a stain of splattered coffee on her yellow top. "Do you even realize how much this shirt costs?" She glared, green eyes narrowing like daggers that made Danny cringe away from her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to run into you like that," Danny apologized again.

Valerie crushed the paper cup in her hand, spilling some of what was left of the coffee onto the floor. "Calling it an accident doesn't change the fact that you ruined my shirt!"

"I'm really sorry, Valerie." Danny struggled, searching for an answer that quell the woman's rage. "If I could make it up to you somehow-"

"What is this?" Valerie's brow wrinkled, but the anger didn't leave her expression. She reached down to pick up the closest of the remaining pictures to her that was left on the floor.

"Ah, that's just, um," Danny said, flustered as his cheeks turned pink with embarrassment. Several of the pictures he had with him were from various ghosts that he had encountered recently, but most of his pictures were of Phantom. Sometimes he would just stare at those pictures, feeling silly but wanting to know more about the mysterious Phantom.

"This is that guy that's been all over the news recently." Valerie shot him a side glance as she held up the picture between two fingers. "Which means if you're the one taking the pictures, you're making quite a bit of money."

"Some money," Danny agreed uncertainly, quickly picking up the remaining pictures. When Danny reached out for the one in her hand, Valerie snapped it out of his reach.

"You have money. And this dry cleaning bill is bound to be expensive." Valerie stood up, holding the picture hostage from Danny. "You pay it, and I _might_ forgive you for this incident."

"You _can't_ be serious!" Danny shouted as he shot to his feet, his own rage sparking. "I might be getting a little more money from my pictures being on the front page, but I'm not making _that_ much." Given that Valerie was a part of the A list which always wore high end clothing, Danny doubted that he could afford to pay the dry cleaning bill for anything that Valerie owned. Even if he somehow managed to pay the bill, he would probably end up completely broke afterward.

"Oh, what's this?" a woman questioned with an almost squeal in her voice. "Strife between students?"

"Who are you?" Danny asked at the same time as Valerie when they both turned to look at the woman that came up to them. He gave a shiver, wondering if the air conditioner in the school was somehow stuck on full blast. The school was unusual chilly since that morning.

The woman smiled at them, her red painted lips stretching wide in a look that almost seemed sinister to Danny. The way her red hair was styled up like twins horns that made Danny feel a little reminiscent of Maleficent from _Sleeping Beauty_ didn't help in making her look sweet and innocent.

"I'm Penelope Spectra," she answered, glancing over her glasses with eyes that were a touch too bright green. "I've taken over as student counselor here." She placed her hands on their shoulders and guided them down the hall. "And the two of you get to be my lucky first students. Isn't that great?"

"I don't need counseling," Valerie argued, pulling away from the woman's hold. "What I need is for this loser to pay the dry cleaning bill for the shirt he ruined." She glared darkly at Danny as if he was to blame for the involvement of the school's counselor.

"Maybe what you _really_ need is to talk about why you're so angry all the time," Ms. Spectra said as she forcibly guided Valerie into her office. Danny decided that was probably a good opportunity to sneak off, but the moment he started to inch away, Ms. Spectra's hand caught him in a tight grip that made him wince before she dragged him into the office too. The door closed after them, and it seemed to echo with its finality as if solidifying their eternal doom of suffering through counseling.

"I'm not _angry_ all the time." Valerie folded her arms with a darkening scowl upon her face.

Ms. Spectra glanced briefly toward Danny as the corner of her mouth quirked upward. "Right. Of course you're not," she said, using that unconvinced tone that most adults used when speaking with an unruly child. "But let's pretend for a moment that you are." She gestured to the seats before her desk. "Please. Have a seat."

"This is pointless," Valerie grumbled, but she sat down anyway, pointedly looking away from the counselor.

Ms. Spectra smiled in what she probably thought was a pleasant manner, but Danny found it rather unpleasant. She turned to him with an expectant look, and after an extended moment passed between them, Danny sighed and dropped into the other chair. "Now," Ms. Spectra said, folding her arms as she leaned back against the desk, "let's get down to the heart of the problem."

"The _heart_ of the problem is that this _loser_ ran into me," Valerie said, glowering at Danny, "and made me spill my coffee, ruining my shirt." She gestured with one arm to the coffee spilled all over her shirt.

"I _said_ I was sorry," Danny argued. "Why is it so hard for you to just accept that it was an accident and that I'm sorry it happened?" Sometimes the A list drove him crazy with their selfish thinking. Everything was always someone else's fault. The A list were never to blame. They were perfect, and everyone else was below them. Danny seethed at how they always thought only about themselves and never about how their actions affected those around them. There were exceptions, of course. Kwan tended to be nice to everyone, and it seemed Dash was turning away from his bullying ways, thanks to that little chat Danny had with him during their punishment. After that encounter with Johnny and Kitty, Calvin had avoided Danny with which he was perfectly fine.

"Excellent question!" Ms. Spectra turned to Valerie, and Danny's brow furrowed, wondering if he was seeing things. For a moment, he thought the woman actually looked a touch younger. "Why is it that you couldn't simply accept his apology and move on?" Her brows lifted, and she stared at Valerie in wait for an answer.

"Why _should_ I accept it?" Valerie countered.

"Because he apologized for the accident." The answer was simple, but Ms. Spectra could see as well as Danny could that Valerie thought the response was ridiculous. "You're letting the accident fuel this fire of anger inside of you. Why is it so important for you to cling to that anger?"

"I'm not clinging to anything." Valerie slouched a bit in her chair, hugging her arms around her. "And can we turn the heat up in here? I feel like I'm trapped in the freezer or something."

"You're clinging to something." Ms. Spectra smiled as she ignored the other question. "Something you clearly have been avoiding talking about for a very long time." She placed a hand to her chin as she considered what might be troubling the young woman. "Clearly no financial concerns, given how expensive your clothing is. Not to mention it looks like you use some fairly high end makeup." She breathed in deeply. "And is that the new perfume Forever Young? That's a pretty pricy perfume."

"I don't have to tell you anything."

"I'm a counselor. I'm here to listen to whatever problems you may have. I want you to feel like you can come to me with anything that's bothering you."

"The only thing bothering me right now is _you_." Valerie narrowed her eyes at Ms. Spectra, who merely continued to smile back at her.

Danny, meanwhile, shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Uh, maybe I should just-"

"A death in the family," Ms. Spectra said, cutting off Danny, who slouched down in his chair and banged his knee against the desk. In the chair next to him, Valerie stiffened visibly. "I would guess your mother. Am I right?"

Danny felt even more like he shouldn't be present for this conversation. It wasn't any of his business to hear about Valerie's mother dying, but it tickled his curiosity. He glanced toward Valerie, whose green eyes held a mixture of anger and sorrow. Ms. Spectra had definitely struck true with her guess.

"You're angry about her death," Ms. Spectra continued, and when Danny tried to, subtly, get up to leave, she pushed away from her desk and forced him to stay seated with a hand pushing down on his shoulder. "You jump at the chance to shout out that anger whenever any little thing sets you off because it's your only outlet for that anger. But if you don't let go of that anger, it's just going to eat you up inside. Try letting some of it go. Accept his apology for the accident."

"I _don't_ have to listen to you." Valerie got up from her chair, glaring icily at the counselor. After an uncomfortably long moment, she turned and walked out of the office, slamming the door behind her.

"That child." Ms. Spectra sighed with a shake of her head.

"Uh, are you sure you should have said all of that in front of me?" Danny asked in uncertainty. "That seemed really personal. I doubt Valerie wanted it announced in front of me that her mother died. And did you get younger?"

"Perhaps." Ms. Spectra frowned as she stared at the door to her office. "I thought perhaps I could get through to her." She tore her gaze away from the door to stare down at Danny. "Aren't you just the sweetest!" She pinched his cheek, and he flinched at the coldness of her hand. "How could someone get _younger_?"

"Yeah, but-" Danny was certain that the woman appeared younger now than when she first approached him and Valerie.

"But it's time for you to get to class," Ms. Spectra cut in again and shooed him toward the door. "I won't write you a late pass if you dawdle so you better hurry." She closed the door in his face, leaving Danny standing outside her office and feeling somewhat stunned. Was Ms. Spectra hiding something?

Shaking his head, Danny started walking down the hall with his brow knitting in his confusion. Ms. Spectra was right, though. He didn't want to arrive at his next class late. He hurried to his class, mulling over the strangeness of the encounter with their new student counselor.

* * *

**Dr. Strawberries**: Danny is totally some sort of couples counselor for the ghosts. XD Unfortunately, the name is about all Danny's really gotten on Phantom so far. D8 It's hard to imagine Phantom without a hero complex. XD;; I love Junjou Romantica! And Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi~ As for how Phantom will act around Danny, well, we'll have to wait and see! 8D;;;

**Married to Danny**: Johnny and Kitty should have been in the show more! D: Okay. I say that about a lot of the characters, but it's true. All of the ghosts' appearances seemed too short. I'm sorry you got lost in the chapters. =( I wouldn't say Dash and Danny are friends. Just that Dash is backing off being a bully.

**Some Weird Chick**: Aw~ Why thank you! =D I haven't really finished anything decent as an original story. orz I could certainly try to include a good chunk of the cast, but I don't I'll be able to fit everyone into it, though I could give passing mentions. Undergrowth will definitely not appear. I can feel the romance coming! *shakes fist* Come on, Phantom! Stop making your boy wait! I guess long stories can be a bit daunting. XD;; I don't think you'll be waiting too much longer to find out the answer on that one. XD;

**Gabbygirl1234**: Thanks! =D

**Rii**: Kwan's a sweetheart~ 8D;; His distractions, however, probably wouldn't work on Calvin. D8 I think Kitty and Johnny would kick Calvin's butt if they ever caught him messing with Danny again. Since they think Danny's pretty all right. XD They never really said where her kisses sent men. When they were brought back, it seemed like there were only just a little confused? I'd have to go watch that episode again. Aw, but slicked back hair! XD Aki did a really good job on Phantom's design. 8D Hm, that could be a possibility. Yes! It's very difficult. I'm keeping notes for each story too, just in case I need to back track and look up which story had what happen in it without rereading them all from the beginning.

**midnight**: Ha! Found something to get back at Calvin with. 8) Ghosts! Now if her kisses worked something like Fright Knight's sword, that would be good too. Just send him off to suffer his worst nightmare for an hour or two and see how that changes him when he returns. I wonder if there's a limit to how many times she can disappear a person.

**Hoytti**: Well, even if he's looking to become a photographer, that doesn't mean he doesn't still love space and stuff. =) Some questions, I can't answer just yet. *keeps mouth zipped tight* That's okay! You don't have to review every story. XD If I need any ideas, I'll be sure to contact you. Straight stories... Well, I do right non-slash drabbles from time to time. XD;;; I haven't yet written one that's full length though.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 09**

"Did you guys know about Valerie's mother dying?" Danny asked, his gaze lingering on the woman sitting on the other side of the fast food joint. His view of the A list table was blocked every so often when people stood in line to order food. Valerie sat on the outside end of the booth with Paulina, of course, in the center as always and Star sitting by the window. The three women seemed to be chatting about something with a newspaper laid out before them. Dash and Kwan, meanwhile, were playing paper football in between bites of their burgers.

It was one of the rare nights when he had the chance to hang out with his friends without getting a call from Mr. Carmichael who had a new story that he needed to take pictures for or a massive amount of homework that cut into his time with friends. Sam and Tucker were enjoying their meals of a salad and a hamburger while Danny sat there with only a soda. Since he knew his mother would be at home working on dinner, Danny didn't want to order anything and ruin his appetite.

"I think it happened somewhere around fifth or sixth grade," Tucker said after swallowing his mouthful. He wiped his mouth clean on a napkin. "I remember she was out of school for a couple of days. I think it was cancer or something."

Danny tore his gaze away from the A list table, which was probably a wise thing to do before any of them looked over and caught him staring like an idiot. "I don't remember hearing about that." He frowned at his friends.

"Well, it's not like they broadcast it through the school." Tucker picked up his soda and took a drink of it.

"I didn't know about it either," Sam admitted, tossing a glance toward the popular table.

"Ms. Spectra thinks Valerie's still holding onto a lot of anger from her mom's death." Danny stared down at his soda, turning the cup in his hands. He tried to imagine what it would be like to lose either of his parents, and it felt like a wrenching in his heart. He doubted that pain of having a parent die would ever go away. Glancing at Valerie again, he wondered how she managed to go on with her life carrying that pain for a number of years. But maybe that was why she relied on anger. It helped to lessen the pain for a while. It wasn't the best solution though.

"Who's Ms. Spectra?" Sam asked, her brow creasing as she stabbed a piece of lettuce with her plastic fork.

"The new student counselor." Danny shrugged a shoulder. "I met her today when I accidentally bumped into Valerie and spilled her coffee over her. I apologized, but Valerie got all angry, so Ms. Spectra stepped in." He did feel a little guilty telling his friends about the experience, especially bringing up the death of Valerie's mother, but he tended to share everything with his friends. That wasn't sounding like a very good excuse in his head though. "It was kind of weird though. I swear when I left her office, she actually _looked_ younger."

Tucker and Sam exchanged a glance before they both turned back to Danny.

"You don't think she could be a ghost, do you?" Sam asked with suspicion heavy in her voice. Tucker already had out his cell phone and was furiously typing on the touch screen keyboard.

"I thought I felt a shiver when she first popped up, but the whole school had been cold all day." Danny frowned as he puzzled over that point. "Her hand was freezing when she pinched my cheek though."

"I wondered why it was so cold," Sam said. "I was thinking maybe the air conditioner was broken or something and stuck on full blast for some reason."

"Do you think she did it on purpose to keep people from realizing she's a ghost?" Danny asked. "People have kind of made that connection now that a chill usually means the presence of a ghost."

"Penelop Spectra?" Tucker asked. "Is that her?" He laid his phone out on the table so that they could all lean over to see the picture of the woman displayed on the screen.

Danny nodded, immediately recognizing that shade of red hair on the woman.

Tucker picked up the phone and scrolled through the information. "Penelope Spectra died thirteen years ago at the age of eighty-two. The picture shown is from when she was about twenty-nine."

"Wait." Sam looked as confused as Danny felt. "Did she look like that picture when you saw her?"

Danny nodded again. "But shouldn't she look how she did when she died?"

"You said she looked younger after you met with her though, right?" Tucker asked, and Danny nodded.

"So maybe she uses these little 'therapy' sessions somehow to make herself younger," Sam suggested. "Like somehow she's feeding off the students' energy that she talks to."

"I guess," Danny said with some reservations. "But it did seem like she cared about helping Valerie deal with her mom's death. So she can't be all bad, right? So she feeds on people's energy to look younger. Is that so bad as long as it doesn't harm them or anything?"

"But we don't know that it _doesn't_ harm the students somehow," Sam pointed out with her mouth pressed thin.

They had all come to learn a lot about ghosts since they first started appearing in town. The idea that ghosts worked on an obsession as presented in a thesis by someone twenty years ago seemed more logical the more they discovered about ghosts. Ms. Spectra's obsession could easily be about keeping her youthful beauty, which would explain her ability to feed on students' energy to appear younger. Danny understood Sam's concern because they really didn't know anything about how Spectra's ability would affect people. He hadn't noticed any change in Valerie, but maybe it simply wasn't something that happened right away but over time or it took a few sessions with Spectra to become noticeable. Still, Danny was hesitant to label her a threat if her counseling could help those that needed it.

"Should we tell the school about this?" Tucker asked, glancing worriedly between his friends. "They need to know, right? They should know they hired a ghost that could potentially harm the students, right?"

"I think we should talk to Principal Ishiyama tomorrow morning," Sam agreed, and they both turned to Danny with expectant looks.

Danny frowned, not feeling entirely right about the whole thing. "I don't know that that's entirely fair. If she's genuinely interested in helping the students and doesn't mean any harm, why should we interfere?" There was another exchange of glances between his friends, and Danny wondered what they talked about when he wasn't around because he was getting the feeling that he was usually the topic of discussion.

"Danny, we know that there are some ghosts that really don't want to do any harm to people," Tucker said with that irritatingly concerned frown on his face. "They just want to exist and be left alone. But that's not true of all ghosts, but sometimes you seem blinded about that fact."

"I'm not blinded!" Danny argued as anger began a slow burn through him. He knew quite well that there were some ghosts out there that enjoyed terrorizing the living. "Why don't you come out and say what you want to instead of beating around the bush?"

"Danny." Sam sighed as she reached out toward him, but Danny snapped his hand away and leaned back against the booth so that he would be out of her reach. She frowned at his reaction, drawing her hand back. "We're just worried that maybe," she winced, "you might be a little obsessed with this Phantom ghost."

"I'm not obsessed!" But Danny was now considering not sharing so much with his friends if they were going to treat him like he was some crazy stalker. He admitted maybe he was a tad bit more curious about Phantom than he should be, but he couldn't help his attraction to the mysterious white haired ghost. He _knew_ it was crazy to like a ghost, and he even tried to ignore it. But then he would catch sight of Phantom while taking pictures for the newspaper, and his heart would skip and he would take far too many pictures than necessary of the ghost. He, at least, kept that part secret from his friends.

"We get it, Danny," Tucker said, trying to calm the anger that burst out of his friend in his response. "We haven't been able to find anything on this ghost like we have with the other ghosts. You want to figure out what his story is. But maybe it's time to take a step back for a while. Clear your head a little."

Danny guessed he was happy his friends were being too dense to realize what was really causing his interest in Phantom. "I gotta go," he announced as he stood, leaving his soda half finished. "My parents are expecting me back in, like, five minutes for dinner. I'll see you at school." He gave them a wave then headed for the exit of the Nasty Burger. He was certain that his friends would be discussing that for the remainder of the night, talking about his reaction to their comments about Phantom. As long as they didn't start thinking that maybe he liked Phantom in some silly crush, Danny decided they could talk as much as they liked. He shoved his hands in his pockets as he started walking away from the Nasty Burger.

The comment about needing to get home for dinner wasn't a lie, but Danny took his time walking back to his house. He took the long way that added about fifteen or twenty minutes depending on how fast he decided to walk. His parents would probably be annoying and ask him what was wrong if he returned home in a grumpy mood, and Danny really didn't want to tell them about all the ghost research he was doing with his friends. Not when his parents got weird whenever ghosts came up in conversation or were featured in the newspaper. Danny's head cooled off a bit as he walked. He knew his friends were only concerned and looking out for him, but he got that ambushed feeling as if they were plotting for a while now how best to stage an intervention about his ghost obsession.

"My, my, Phantom," said a woman, whose voice was still quite familiar to him from some hours earlier at school. Danny froze when he heard Ms. Spectra speaking and tensed up when he heard the mention of Phantom's name. They were just up ahead, out of sight around the corner of a building that led into an alley. "It's always a pleasure to see you again. You sure you don't want to tell me all the things that are troubling you?"

"Spectra," the ghost said with a bit of a growl in his tone.

Danny inched closer toward the corner of the building, feeling a little guilty about the way only hearing Phantom's voice made his breath catch for a moment.

"Do we have to have another talk?"

Danny peeked around the corner and saw Ms. Spectra leaning up against the wall. Phantom stood before her with his arms folded and his green eyes narrowed. His bangs weren't slicked back anymore, now falling down to reach just past his chin. Danny was surprised when he spotted Phantom after the burning building accident to find his hair changed. He had thought that ghosts were static, but it seemed that ghosts were actually malleable, able to adopt differences in their appearances overtime. Was this a conscious decision for them? Or did certain changes occur without any sort of thought from the ghost?

Phantom's hair was slightly longer than his shoulders, and every time Danny saw the ghost, Phantom had his hair tied back in a ponytail. His outfit remained the same black and white color scheme with a touch of gray thrown in. There was a hood attached to his jacket, but Danny only saw the ghost wearing the hood up on one or two occasions.

Ms. Spectra sighed as she pushed away from the wall and stood with a hand on one hip that jutted out. Danny reached into his bag and retrieved his camera. Now that he was certain of her identity as a ghost, Danny wanted to make sure he caught a picture of her so that he could add her to his growing collection of ghostly knowledge.

"You don't have to be so intense all the time." Ms. Spectra smirked as she ran a finger along the underside of Phantom chin, which only seemed to annoy him. "I'm not about to stir up trouble so you can relax. I just want to start over with a new life. Some of the students here could really use someone to help them with their problems."

"And their angst makes for such a great spa treatment, I'm sure," Phantom said dryly.

Ms. Spectra shrugged as she pulled away her hand, and Danny made sure his flash was off before he adjusted the lens to start taking pictures. "You can't blame me for wanting to skim off a few years here and there."

"I also know that in this past year, you've had a problem keeping it to just 'skimming' as you say."

Ms. Spectra frowned, her expression souring. "That was an accident! You can't hold that over me for forever. Have I made that mistake since?"

"No," Phantom answered, "but I want to make sure you know I'm keeping a watch on you. The moment you take things too far, I _will_ be there to stop you."

Ms. Spectra huffed a sigh. "Sometimes I really regret ever meeting you. I promise I will do no harm to the students at the high school. My only intention is trying to help them."

"Good. Then hopefully I won't have to see you again."

"Not unless you wish to work out any of your own problems." Ms. Spectra's gaze slid away from Phantom, and Danny nearly dropped his camera when he thought for sure she looked his way. "I'm _always_ open to listening to people's problems." With a smirk, she gave Phantom a two finger salute before vanishing in a swirl of shadows.

The silence that fell after her departure felt like a thick blanket muffling his head. Danny swallowed as he realized it was basically only him and Phantom now, though he was the only one that knew that. He stared at Phantom through the lens of the camera, but the ghost didn't seem to have any intention of moving any time soon. What was Phantom thinking about right now, Danny wondered?

Suddenly, he felt like he was intruding on the ghost's privacy, and he backed up a step. The clatter of an aluminum can skidding across the sidewalk echoed loudly in the night after Danny's foot kicked it. He tensed up, cringing at the noise, and he took his gaze away for two seconds to glance at the can, silvery in color with the name only half visible on the side. When he snapped his head back around, he nearly jumped out of his skin to find those glowing green eyes right in front of him, staring rather intently at him.

"I'm sorry!" Danny blurted out, holding the camera up before his bowed head as if it would somehow shield him. He felt even sillier for responding like that. He had seen Phantom plenty of times since the burning building, but he never expected to actually _speak_ to the ghost. When his camera was pulled down away from his face, Danny swallowed thickly, nervousness bubbling up inside him as his cheeks warmed slightly. He must look ridiculous! He certainly felt ridiculous.

"Sorry for what?"

Danny dared to lift his blue eyes to sneak a glance at the ghost. He really did have a handsome face, and his eyes trailed along the strong jaw line to chin then to lips that tugged into a slight smile and up his nose until his glance became more than a glance as their eyes locked with each other. His heart skipped in his chest, and for a moment, he forgot that the ghost even spoke until Phantom leaned just a touch closer with an expectant look in his eyes.

"For, uh," Danny stalled, trying to remember what exactly was asked of him, "o-overhearing your conversation with Ms. Spectra."

"You know Spectra?" Expectance turned to curiosity, and Phantom didn't seem to have any understanding of personal space as he kept much too close to the man in front of him.

"She's a counselor at my school." Danny shifted his weight, moving back half a step as the closeness to Phantom was making it hard for him to think clearly. The air felt warmer than it should, and he realized he was blushing furiously, even his ears felt warm. Phantom seemed to move with him, refusing to let there be more space between them, and Danny wasn't sure what to think of that.

Phantom nodded, his gaze lowering briefly before returning back to Danny's eyes. "I've seen you before." He touched the camera. "You always turn up when I'm around hiding behind this. Such a shame when you have such a cute face."

Danny couldn't respond. His heart was beating so quickly he thought it would burst as a fluttering filled his insides. His face burned so brightly that he thought for certain that the blush would never again leave his face. He shook his head, tearing his gaze away from the ghost. What was he even to say to something like that? People weren't in the habit of calling him cute.

"Do you say that to every human you meet?"

"Only the really cute ones with eyes as bright as the clear blue sky." Phantom smiled, cupping his white gloved hand to Danny's blushing cheek and brushing his thumb under one eye.

Danny had to tear his gaze away before he did something pathetic like lean in to kiss the ghost. He shouldn't be having feelings like this toward a ghost, but he could feel Phantom's hand against his cheek, a solid weight as if the ghost could still be alive. But more importantly, neither of them really knew anything about the other. A relationship built solely on a physical desire wasn't want he wanted.

"You don't even know me," Danny said, turning his gaze back onto the ghost.

Phantom considered then nodded. "True." The corner of his mouth stretched into half a grin. "But I'd like to know more about my little photographer."

Danny felt his cheeks puffing out at the term. He was hardly little! He was gangly and tall! "Why?" he asked, distracting himself away from his mental grumbling at the term.

"You're always around taking pictures of me. I got curious about you." Phantom's hand slid away from Danny's cheek and down his neck, fingertips brushing over his flesh in a dance that made his skin tingle. "You seem to be interested in me."

Danny couldn't deny it even if he wanted to. "Perhaps I am," he said and immediately wanted to kick himself for saying something so dumb. "I'd like to get to know more about you. Perhaps we could start with a name? I'm Danny Fenton." His heart stopped in anticipation for Phantom response. Would he finally get to learn the ghost's real name?

"I'm Phantom. But according to Johnny, you already knew that." Phantom grinned as Danny hunched up his shoulders, looking away as his face returned to tomato red. He leaned in close, lips nearly brushing against Danny's ear as he whispered, "I'd like to meet again. Perhaps a date?"

Danny thought for sure he was going to die from shock. Did Phantom really just ask him out on a date? He kept trying to remind himself that Phantom was a ghost, but that fact hardly seemed to lessen his eagerness to say yes. "I should be free Saturday night. Assuming no news stories happen that night."

Phantom nodded as he stepped away, finally giving Danny some much needed space. "Saturday then. Where shall we meet, my little photographer?"

Danny flushed at the term. Maybe it was growing on him. He considered for some time, trying to decide where was best to meet. "Do you know the hill in the park? The one with the big tree on it?"

"I shall meet you there." Phantom took his hand, bowing lowly as he brought the hand to his mouth and placed a kiss on the back of it. When he stood up straight, he released his hold on Danny's hand and lifted into the air. "Until Saturday." With a wave, he flew higher into the sky until Danny lost sight of him among the stars.

"Oh, I'm in trouble," Danny breathed out even as the excitement filled him. He couldn't wait for Saturday to come!

* * *

**mcswaq**: Spectra~ 8D I couldn't resist putting her in there. She was really the best canon ghost to introduce into the school.

**Rii**: Oh man! I just got my Pokemon Y game yesterday, and it was so hard to get any writing done because I kept wanting to play it. I couldn't leave out Valerie! I'm not sure that Valerie will have any reason to become the Huntress like in canon. I don't really plan on her dad losing his job, thus, crushing her standing in popularity and all that. Spectra isn't quite a villain here. Phantom's definitely going to be making sure she doesn't do anything that leads to harming the students though since that is something that's happened in the past. Making up back stories can be a lot of fun to play with. 8D Especially since we weren't given much of any with the ghosts in the series. We know about Desiree's past and we know that Pointdexter was bullied, but all the other ghosts basically weren't touched.

**MsFrizzle**: Yeah. =( I imagine even though he's really interested in learning more, hearing about all their tragic ends is really getting to him. Why thank you! =) I'm glad my writing was able to evoke a response. Spectra, always obsessed with looking young and beautiful. Even when she was old and gray, she was wanting to make herself look younger somehow.

**Some Weird Chick**: For a children's cartoon, it had a lot dark themes going on. D: Haha, yeah. You were right about Danny finding out Spectra's a ghost. And wee! Phantom finally appears! Yeah, there are actually a ton of characters in Danny Phantom when you really think about it. XD;; I tried to include as many of them as I could when I was writing A World Unseen and still have everything connected and have reason for them actually being there. Whew! It was tough!

**i kissed danny and he liked it**: Thanks! =) I shall try to add in more ghost interactions. 8D

**midnight**: Yeah. That's some power when she gets a boost. D: And there was a time limit on it too. Like if they didn't get her to return the men again before a certain amount of time passed, the guys wouldn't be able to come back ever! Now that's truly terrifying power there! It may not be the best way to grieve, but that seems to be Valerie's chosen route for dealing with death. =(

**DannyPhentom**: Aw~ I'm glad you gave the story a chance! =) Well, the attraction is definitely there, but like Danny said, he doesn't want a relationship built solely on physical attraction. Thanks! =D I'm glad you're enjoying the story and that the characters feel real.

**ghostanimal**: Did he dress up like the Box Ghost for Halloween!? Because if he did that would be both awesome and a little scary in coincidence! O: Ouch! I'm sorry he got hurt like that. D:


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Danny could hardly contain his excitement for his date, even though he realized how silly it was to date a ghost. Clearly, he had to have a wire, or a hundred, loose in his head if he was feeling attracted to someone that was dead. He stopped in the middle of the hall, a look of horror crossing his face. Did that make him some sort of necrophiliac? Danny raked a hand through his raven locks as that terrible thought rattled around in his head.

Okay. So he was attracted to Phantom, that much was completely undeniable. But he didn't feel attracted to _every_ ghost lurking around town. The ones that showed no hint of how they died and could look still very much alive all had varying degrees of attractiveness. Ms. Spectra was pretty, as was Kitty, and Johnny had that whole bad boy biker look going for him. But they didn't make Danny _feel_ anything toward them. Nothing except an interest in who they were and how they died. He didn't have some weird romantic obsession with all dead people. It was only Phantom.

Danny glanced toward the A list as he passed by them in the hall. Paulina had her locker open as she chatted with Dash and Kwan, all of them wearing their Dumpty Humpty shirts for the concert tonight. Plastered on the inside of her locker door, Danny spotted some newspaper clippings, all featuring his pictures of Phantom that made it onto the front page. He felt a small swell at pride to see his pictures there, even though he knew Paulina probably didn't even know or care about whom took them. But it was clear that he wasn't the only one taking notice of the ghostly hero. Paulina had even doodled little hearts all over the newspaper around Phantom, and Danny often heard Dash and Kwan talking about the ghost's heroic deeds. It seemed no one else got bent out of shape over the fact that Phantom was a ghost, or maybe they simply realized that any crushes they had on him were of the superficial nature.

Danny couldn't say the same about himself. He didn't really know much about Phantom beyond his heroic activities around town, and that Phantom apparently wasn't oblivious to Danny's constant presence whenever he was making news. He didn't know anything _real_ about Phantom, not even the name he had when he was alive, but that didn't stop the aching desire to get to know more about the ghost. Other than Phantom's not living status, everything seemed basically how a normal relationship between two people would start. Still, he couldn't get rid of the nagging whisper that said this was wrong, and it had nothing to do with the fact that they were two men.

When he neared his lockers, Danny frowned at his friends who were already waiting there. The determined furrow in Sam's brow and the sweating nervous shifting of Tucker's gaze stopped him before he could reach them. Something was up, and if the thought of being a necrophiliac hadn't crushed his happy mood already, Danny was certain this would have as he glanced between his friends.

"Tell me you didn't say anything," Danny begged as he closed the distance between them. His heart felt like it was sinking in his chest.

"Danny, she could be dangerous," Sam said firmly, not budging on her stance as she leaned against the lockers with her arms folded. She was one of the most stubborn people Danny knew, and once her mind was made up, it was impossible to get her to change it.

"Tuck," Danny pleaded, turning to his other friend in hopes that he might have a slightly better chance of convincing Tucker. "Ms. Spectra hasn't hurt _anyone_." At least not recently according to the conversation he overheard last night, though Danny certainly wasn't going to mention that to his friends. "Why are you so determined to ruin her before she's even done anything wrong?"

Sam pushed away from the locker, positioning herself right in front of Danny. "Because," she answered with a steely glare, "we can't wait for _when_ she hurts someone. It might be too late to do anything to stop her or protect that person if we just let her go about freely eating up people's energy."

"But she doesn't-" Danny shouted out in frustration but paused, running a hand through his hair as he scrambled for some way to reach his friends. "Maybe I _am_ a little too sympathetic toward ghosts, but you've read up on them as much as I have. You've seen the terrible ways they've died. Granted, Ms. Spectra's obsession seems to be keeping herself young and beautiful, but that doesn't mean her intention is to hurt people to achieve that. Can't you at least give her the benefit of the doubt?"

"Not when she's using people and feeding off them like this is an all you can eat buffet!" Sam screamed back, and they were drawing a fairly large crowd of onlookers with their yelling.

"Now, now," Ms. Spectra said, suddenly appearing in front of them, and Danny now understood how she was able to do that since she was a ghost. "What's all this yelling about?" She smiled pleasantly as her green eyes drifted among the three friends. From the look in her eyes, Danny suspected Ms. Spectra already had a fairly good idea about what he and Sam were yelling.

"Everyone out of the way! Step aside! Clear the way!"

The group turned to see what this new shout was about, and Danny felt dread snaking up through him as he tried to swallow it down again. Two men elbowed their way through the crowd of students. They wore white suits and sunglasses that gave them the appearance of those FBI or CIA or whatever bodyguard type agents for the government. Somewhere in his head, Danny snorted at the sunglasses. Didn't these men realize they looked ridiculous wearing sunglasses indoors? They had some sort of pack strapped to their backs and held something that reminded Danny a lot of the long handle on a vacuum cleaner that was meant to reach up high or under things like couches. It also vaguely reminded him of those old movies, and he thought there was a cartoon of it too, with the four men living in some old firehouse type building.

The two men stopped before them, and Danny didn't miss the way Ms. Spectra inched around the three friends to put distance between her and the two men. Whoever they were, Ms. Spectra wanted to avoid them. One of the men, the dark skinned one as skin tone was really the only difference between the two bald men, pulled something out of his suit pocket and held it up before him. It looked like a small metal box with two sensor rods sticking out one end. It made some strange whirring and beeping noises, and the two men exchanged glances.

"They were right to give us a call," the dark skinned man said as he shoved the device back into his pocket. "This spectral scum is dangerous. We should eliminate it at once to avoid any further damage to the school." The way he spoke was as if he and his partner were the only two there, instead of the crowd of students all watching in wonderment at their appearance in the school.

The term eliminate resonated inside him, echoing in his ears. Panic surged up through him as he watched, almost in slow motion, as the two men lifted the ridiculous vacuum cleaner looking attachments toward Ms. Spectra. Danny didn't know what those things did, but the dread inside him said it couldn't be good. These men were here for Ms. Spectra. They wanted to _eliminate_ her. That could only be a bad thing. The two men had their weapons, because that was all Danny could imagine they were at this point, raised and aimed at Ms. Spectra, whose green eyes were wide with terror. His body acted without thought or hesitation and threw itself to the side to protect the ghost. Twin blasts slammed into his chest with enough force to make him feel like his ribs were smashed and his lungs crushed flat, pushing out every last bit of air inside them. He probably would have collapsed onto the ground right then if Sam and Tucker hadn't immediately grabbed hold of his arms to support him. His vision was blurry for several moments, but he could hear the gasps and whispers in a rush of noise all around him. That was probably one of the dumbest things that he had ever done, but when he felt Ms. Spectra's cold hand against his back, he was glad he did it. She was safe because he had acted.

"What do you think you're doing?" someone shouted over the noise of the hall, and after a moment, Danny realized it was Dash. He forced his eyes to focus as he turned his gaze back to where the two white suited men stood. Dash stood next to them with fury in his dark blue eyes.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked in concern.

"Breathing hurts," Danny wheezed, and his chest ached with each intake of air. Hurt was a gross understatement. His shirt felt damp, and he really hoped that wasn't from blood, but he was too scared to actually look so he kept his gaze on Dash.

"You could have killed him with whatever _this_ is!" Dash continued shouting at the men as he smacked the vacuum like handle of their weapon.

The pale skinned man shoved Dash back a step, and Kwan was there to catch his friend. "We are government officials. It would be wise for you not to harass us, or we'll be forced to _deal_ with you." The way he said it sent chills through Danny. It was like the man wanted everyone to believe that he would kill Dash if the jock stood in their way.

"As for your friend here," the dark skinned man said, and Danny almost laughed because he and Dash were hardly anything like friends, "it's his own fault for getting in our way."

Danny pulled his arms free, managing to stand steady on his feet. Or at least enough so that he didn't pitch forward and do a spectacular face plant into the floor. His eyes narrowed at the two men in white, and he was working up an angry retort to shout at them when someone else spoke first.

"Since when do you stand up for a loser?" Valerie questioned, standing beside Dash with her eyebrow raised at him.

"When goons in white turn up and nearly shoot some weird green stuff clear through the loser," Dash replied with a harsh growl in his voice. Valerie didn't look convinced of his answer, so Dash tried another tactic. "Hey, if you were angry at Fenton for getting coffee all over your shirt, I think that stuff," he pointed at the hem of her shirt, "is probably going to be a lot harder to get out."

Valerie dropped her gaze to the hem of her shirt and gasped at the stain of green... _stuff_ splattered on it. Danny wasn't entirely sure what that green stuff was, but it oozed somewhat, dripping off her shirt and onto the floor and her shoes. "Ugh!" Valerie shouted then snapped green eyes onto the men. "Apologize!"

The two men turned the heads and exchanged glances. At least, Danny assumed they did since he couldn't really tell where they were looking while they wore their dumb sunglasses. Neither of them seemed to know how to respond to the order of a teenage woman.

"Miss, we-"

"Apologize!" Valerie demanded again in a much louder voice. Like everyone else, Danny could only stand there stunned by Valerie, who was shouting at government agents who could probably "disappear" her without much effort and make the name Valerie Gray all but a memory to the people of Amity Park.

"What in _The Crucible_ is going on out here?" Lancer pushed his way through the crowd to stand within the circle of surrounding students. His green eyes flicked around, taking in what was happening as his mouth thinned most unhappily. Then his gaze turned onto the two men in white as he awaited an answer.

"We were contacted about a spectral outbreak within the school," the pale skinned man explained. "We'll have things cleaned up here shortly, Sir."

"Get out," Lancer shouted, surprising many of the students in the hall.

Both men hesitated when they were about to take aim at Ms. Spectra again. "Sir, we-"

"GET OUT OF MY SCHOOL!" Lancer's roar made everyone flinch.

"Sir, that is a ghost masquerading as a human," the dark skinned man said, but Lancer merely glared back in response. "Sir, it's our job to remove such threats from the town."

Lancer stepped up to them, and despite being middle aged, balding, and out of shape with a belly that hung over his belt, he looked rather intimidating in that moment. "I don't care who you are or what your job is. This is my school, and I asked you to leave. As for Ms. Spectra, I hardly care if she is a ghost or purple polka dotted alien with two heads, five arms, and a tail. Do you think I am some incompetent teacher who is incapable of doing something as simple as a background check on people before hiring them? I was aware that Ms. Spectra was a ghost. After all, the records showed that Penelope Spectra died thirteen years ago, and there are pictures of her from her younger days to show that this woman was indeed the same one. Her records also indicated that she was a fine student counselor up until she retired, and _that_ is what I cared about when I decided to hire her. If she can reach out and help the students here that need it, then I don't really care that she is a ghost."

"Sir, the principal of this school contacted us-"

"And I shall be having a word with her later," Lancer cut the man off, continuing his act of intimidation. "Now I ask you to apologize to my students then leave before _I_ contact your boss and inform him or her that your actions led to the injury of one of my students."

The two men stared at him as a tense silence fell over the hall. After several moments of reluctance, the two men turned to Valerie. "We apologize for the damage done to your shirt," they said together, which Danny found slightly eerie.

Valerie glared at them, hands balled white knuckle tight at her sides. "Thank you. I accept your apology."

Danny blinked, wondering if he was hit again by the men's weapons because he _felt_ like he was winded by his shock. Valerie had just accepted an apology? Danny's mind was spinning over that fact. Had Ms. Spectra somehow gotten through to Valerie? Was this a sign of that Valerie was turning over a new leaf and learning to let go of her anger?

When the two men turned to vacate the school, Lancer cleared his throat loudly to gain their attention again. "Excuse me, but you have one more apology to make." Lancer turned halfway and gestured toward Danny, who really didn't care if the men apologized for shooting him in the chest so long as they left Ms. Spectra alone.

What could be seen of the men's faces contorted, and they looked far more reluctant to make apologies to Danny, who acted to stop them from hurting the ghost. "We apologize for any injury that befell you."

Danny would have loved to simply reject their apology, but he had a sneaky suspicion that the men wouldn't have cared either way. "Accepted," he said, teeth clenching somewhat as his blue eyes narrowed at the men. Only then did Lancer allow the men to leave the school.

"You knew?" Sam demanded of Lancer once the men in white suits were out of sight. "You knew that Ms. Spectra was a ghost but you still allowed her to be a counselor here?" She looked utterly flabbergasted by that fact.

"Yes, I knew what she was." Lancer stared down at Sam, his mouth pulling thin as if to say he didn't appreciate that she thought he was too dense to realize the truth. "I talked to her directly about the fact that she was a ghost before agreeing to let her be a counselor. She explained to me that part of her abilities as a ghost is to feed on the negative emotions of teenagers. This concerned me, but she has assured me that the affects are not noticeable if she's careful about how much she feeds on and that she has no intention of causing any great harm to my students. I decided to give her a chance, but at the first sign that she's not complying with our arrangement, I will have her removed."

"Principal Ishiyama didn't have any knowledge of this," Sam murmured, completely surprised by Lancer's response.

"She left hiring a new counselor up to me. I didn't feel it necessary to include that Ms. Spectra is a ghost so long as she did her job well and caused no harm to my students." Lancer glanced around at all the staring students. "Class is starting in a few minutes. You all better get to class because I will not be allowing any excuses for being tardy." That announcement got students moving as they hurried off to their first class.

"I'm sorry for causing all this trouble," Ms. Spectra said, her brow creasing with worry as she stared at Danny.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have kept the truth hidden," Lancer said as he stepped up to Danny, who really wasn't feeling like going to class at the moment. "We could have saved ourselves all this trouble." He placed a hand on Danny's shoulder. "I think perhaps you should pay a visit to the nurse's office. I'll inform your teacher of your absence."

"We'll go with him," Sam and Tucker said at once.

"No," Lancer said firmly. "You will head straight to class." He glared sternly down his nose at them until Sam and Tucker reluctantly turned to head for class.

"I'll make sure he gets to the nurse's office," Ms. Spectra said, and Lancer considered her for a moment then nodded.

Danny made a face as they started walking down the hall. Now that everything was over, the pain in his chest seemed to double, and he felt like wheezing with each breath.

"I'm sorry you had to get hurt," Ms. Spectra said, sincerity in her voice as they walked alone through the hall toward the nurse's office. "But I appreciate you standing up for me like that. Even though you overheard that conversation with Phantom."

Danny winced. Of course she knew he was there. He was right when he thought she looked right at him. "Do you mind if I ask what exactly happened?"

Ms. Spectra frowned as she stared ahead of them. "I got sloppy." She sighed heavily. "I was at a school up around Wisconsin somewhere, and-" She stopped and turned to face Danny. "There's a hunger sometimes that comes with being a ghost. When we expel too much energy or are badly injured, we can recover quicker if we feed-"

"On people?" Danny's eyes grew wide in horror.

Ms. Spectra blinked then laughed, and the smile on her face made him relax somewhat. "No, we feed off ectoplasm. It fills our lairs, so when we need to recover, going back to our lairs is the best place for it. But sometimes, we feel this sudden need to eat. We call it ghost hunger. I sort of have a little problem with it because I don't just feed on ectoplasm. I feed on the energy human's give off. Teenagers simply give off the best with all that angst you have." She smirked a little. "So sometimes when that hunger comes over me, I feed on more energy than I should. And," she winced, "that can have terrible affects on the person."

"Like what?"

"The girl I was counseling had poor self esteem and body issues, and when I fed too much on her, it led to her becoming depressed enough to try to take her own life."

Danny gaped at her, unable to think of a response in his shock. "She died?"

Spectra shook her head. "Phantom was around at that time, and he managed to get her the help that she needed before it was too late. But he swore if I ever allowed my hunger to control me like that again, he wouldn't hold back, so I've been watching myself to make sure I never do that again. When I start to feel that hunger again, I leave for a while until the urge has passed and I can safely be around humans again."

Danny nodded, absorbing all that she told him as Ms. Spectra guided him down the hall again. Nothing in what they read on ghosts suggested anything about them suffering from "ghost hunger," but most of the research was merely theories about ghosts without real hard proof to back it up. Obviously, there was a lot that they didn't know about ghosts until they actually talked to them to better understand them.

"Wait." Something about the conversation caught his attention, and Danny glanced at Ms. Spectra. "You said you were in Wisconsin. But... then ghosts haven't just recently been popping up?"

Ms. Spectra laughed, shaking her head. "Ghosts have appeared in the real world for years, centuries actually. Don't they have those silly ghost hunting shows nowadays?"

"I - Well, yeah." Danny's brow furrowed as they stopped in front of the nurse's office. "But there weren't ghosts here in Amity Park until just recently."

"Or maybe there were." Ms. Spectra smirked cryptically. "Now, you let the nice nurse fix you up. After all, you don't want to skip out on your date because you're laid up with broken ribs or something."

Danny turned toward the door but then paused. "You know about the date?" His cheeks warmed as his stomach twisted, which didn't feel good with his aching ribs.

"Mmhm. It's the current talk among us ghosts. Phantom going on a date with a human. That's big news."

"Oh god," Danny groaned as a thought occurred to him. "You're all going to be stalking us, aren't you?"

"I'll try to convince them to leave you two alone." Ms. Spectra ruffled his hair before she wiggled her fingers then headed down the hall.

Danny groaned as he entered the nurse's office. He was already nervous and excited about the date with Phantom. He didn't need the added pressure of knowing that other ghosts might be lurking around to spy on their date.

* * *

**mcswaq**: *dances with* 8D Yay! They've finally met! Phantom likes his little photographer. 8)

**darkloveforfanfiction**: Yay for adorable interactions! =D Danny's all nice. He'll give ghosts the benefit of the doubt unless they're rampaging around town and hurting people right off the bat. XD;;

**Magnetic Witch**: *fan girls with you* Aw, school hours! D:

**Some Weird Chick**: Yay! 8D I'm glad everyone enjoyed Danny and Phantom's first meeting. Aw~ *blushes* I actually haven't seen an flaming since coming back. That's good. 8D Flames were terrible when I was first posting stories years and years ago. D: It's amazing how much dark stuff actually got slipped into a show aimed at children. Then again, the whole show is about ghosts and the main character being half ghost. Kind of hard not to be a bit dark there. It is pretty difficult to work in a bunch of the characters and have it all make sense. I suppose I could have had that first ghost be someone canon, but I was having trouble thinking of one that fit. I guess I could have mirrored canon and have it be the Lunch Lady as the first ghost he encounters.

**i kissed danny and he liked it**: YAY! 8D And soon, they shall have their date! More interactions~

**Hoytti**: Aw~ A news story happening during their date would be sad~ =( Then again, it's not like Danny has any control over that. orz

**Gabbygirl1234**: Danny blushing is just too cute! And he's all nervous and flustered around Phantom, which does help him any when Phantom's being all flirty with him. XD;;

**midnight**: Dates! Dates everywhere! It's so hard coming up with really good date ideas though. XD;;

**Dr. Strawberries**: Phantom's just hanging onto Danny during school hours. And no one understands why Danny's all blushy because Phantom's invisible. I mentioned it in a review once, somewhere, I can't recall where now, about how I could see Danny becoming a teacher and then he and Lancer become teacher buddies. I can see them having book nights where they sit and discuss whatever book they decided to read. XD;; And I do want that to happen in a fic sometime because bonding fics with Lancer are awesome!

**XD**: Yay! 8D It's about time they finally met and interacted! XD I held that off long enough. Oh~ Things are bound to get complicated when Danny finds out about his parents! Well, he is definitely more observant, which I think comes with being a photographer. Always looking at stuff for what would make a great shot, noticing details while on scene at a news story and stuff. But given where he lives, I think he probably is more in tune with ghosts because of any leaking radiation type stuff from the ectoplasm his parents work with. They only _think_ they've safely contained it to the basement. Haha, oh but then Danny would have so much explaining to do to Sam and Tucker. XD;; I wasn't very sneaky about that thesis paper, was I? XD;; Ember could probably make an appearance somewhere. She'd probably enjoy bothering Phantom or checking out this human that's caught Phantom's eye. XD;; Yay! I'm glad you're enjoying the story! I'm pretty sure Valerie will not become the Red Huntress.

**vampireharry the 2**: Most of them are being good, though there have been some mean ghosts coming in every now and then. I did really like the episode where Spectra is introduced. Wouldn't change it. Though if they hadn't focused on making ghosts out to be villains for most of the series, I could see Spectra being one of those ghosts that Danny allied with if they had let her actually be the counselor she pretended to be in the episode. I think she could have been really good at it and helped out students that needed it. Of course, we can't overlook her obsession with being young and beautiful. XD;;


End file.
